Deer: Imports

(asked on 7th December 2016) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many reindeer in how many consignments and from which countries have been imported into the UK in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.


Answered by
George Eustice Portrait
George Eustice
This question was answered on 16th December 2016

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are not able to provide any data regarding the number of imports from non-EU countries, as these are covered by a commodity code in TRACES which will not allow us to break the species down as far as reindeer for third country imports.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) does not hold data on how long reindeer survive after they are imported into the UK. Reindeer are protected by the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006. It is an offence to cause unnecessary suffering and for keepers to fail to ensure their needs are met to the extent required by good practice. Defra has a welfare Code for farmed deer which offers guidance on their health and welfare, some of which would also be applicable to reindeer.

See the table below:

Year

Country from

Count of Consignments

Sum of Quantities

2011

Denmark

1

2

Finland

4

125

Sweden

2

43

2011 Total

7

170

2012

Finland

3

59

2012 Total

3

59

2013

Finland

6

97

Norway

1

12

Sweden

1

86

2013 Total

8

195

2014

Finland

4

72

Sweden

7

148

2014 Total

11

220

2015

Finland

3

62

Norway

1

16

Sweden

4

96

2015 Total

8

174

Grand Total

37

818

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