Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will remove the responsibility for race horse welfare from the British Horseracing Authority and award it to a new, government-appointed, independent body.

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) works in collaboration with the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare to try and make racetracks as safe as possible. The number of racehorse fatalities at racetracks has been falling in general since 2012, except for an increase last year.

However, I and the BHA agree that more must be done to make horseracing safer and I have been in regular discussion with the horseracing authorities about how this can be achieved. I particularly welcome the establishment of the BHA’s Horse Welfare Board and I will be meeting the newly appointed independent chair shortly. I will await evidence of how effective these new arrangements are in practice. I am not currently planning to establish a new regulator in the interim.