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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure that livestock can move freely between land in England and Wales.

Defra works closely with the Devolved Governments with the aim of providing, where possible, a consistent and coordinated response across the UK. A key forum for this is the Animal Disease Policy Group, which is a UK-wide policy decision making group. Defra and the Devolved Governments also engage closely with industry to inform policy development and implementation through the Livestock Core Group.

Nevertheless, disease control is a devolved matter, and it is for the Devolved Governments to assess the disease risks and impacts in relation to their national herds, alongside the impacts of controls, and respond accordingly.

From 1 July 2025 the restricted zone (RZ) for bluetongue will be extended to include all areas of England and the current movement restrictions for live animals within England will be lifted. Given the availability now of safe and effective BTV-3 vaccines, low prevalence of severe clinical signs in affected domestic animals, and the impact of restrictions, sustaining or increasing controls on BTV-3 into the future is neither sustainable nor proportionate.

The Welsh Government will allow livestock to be moved from England to Wales subject to licences, qualifying vaccination and pre-movement tests at the keeper's expense. Farmers will need to make commercial decisions regarding the costs associated with this.