Britain’s equine sector discuss current legislation

A high-level meeting involving senior representatives of Britain’s equine sector took place last week, and addressed fundamental changes to current laws affecting horses.

Lord De Mauley, Defra minister, responded to the increasing concerns over illegal fly grazing. Rather than introduce new tougher legislation, he suggested that existing laws should be applied, such as the Localism Act of 2011.

Roly Owers of World Horse Welfare commented: “We are keen to work with government to address the significant issues facing the equine sector in the spirit of constructive partnership and shared responsibility. We welcome Defra’s acknowledgement that fly-grazing is a serious equine welfare problem and to have the opportunity to explain the legal inadequacies given the current interpretation of existing legislation.”

The meeting was welcomed by those in the industry and gave them an opportunity to discuss significant shortcomings revealed by the horse meat scandal at the beginning of the year. It was also agreed that changes to horse identification and enforcement needs to be explored.

Jeanette Allen of the Horse Trust said: “We need our new equine ID laws to be robust enough to transform compliance and enforcement, and we are confident that many Local Authorities will welcome Defra’s commitment to explore whether fixed penalty notices could be used to deal with anyone failing to meet the requirements of the equine identification regulation.”

David Mountford of the British Equine Veterinary Association commented on equine microchipping: “British vets want an end to the wide availability of unregistered equine microchips which totally undermines the purpose of our equine identification laws.  We have to bring in a system of retrospective microchipping for all equines and look forward to working with Defra and the sector to explore a system of batch control for microchips, which will help ensure traceability and accountability of both owners and vets.”


The British Equestrian Federation has led on plans for a new central database of horses as will be required under new EU rules. Jan Rogers from the organisation said: “We are pleased that Defra have committed to working with the sector in developing a new central database and we are willing to do our part to make this as effective as possible, which is why it is so important we have the right data and tools.”