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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the six-day standstill rule on farmers taking their animals to auction marts.

The current six-day standstill rule for livestock movements balances the risk of disease transmission against the industry’s need to trade livestock. It was introduced in 2003 following the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in 2001. Its purpose is to reduce the spread of undetected disease such as was seen in 2001, reducing the scope and cost of an outbreak.

After extensive modelling, the standstill period was set at six days to take into account the weekly cycle of market sales. The standstill rule includes a range of exemptions that support the regime, including for movements through market.

The Farming Regulation Task Force reviewed standstill in 2011 and recommended the relaxation of standstill rules for movements between farms and where keepers were able to establish approved separation units. There was no consensus amongst industry regarding the right approach, particularly due to concerns around the potential distortion of trade resulting from maintaining standstill for markets and the cost and effectiveness of separation units.

Government is committed to a further review of standstill in 2018, following the implementation of another Farming Regulation Task Force recommendation to simplify the way livestock holdings are defined for recording and reporting purposes which will impact on the number of standstills that need to be complied with.