Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of regulation governing the commercial sale of horses in England.

The department does not hold specific data on the number of complaints about the mis-selling of horses, and it has not made an assessment of the adequacy of regulating this market. However, businesses must comply with consumer protection law, including requirements that information provided to consumers is clear and not misleading.

Horses that are sold for commercial purposes would generally not be in scope of consumer protection legislation and would be largely a matter of contractual law.

More broadly, the Government recently committed to longer term plans to overhaul the wider consumer protection landscape.