Horse Passport (Hansard, 15 January 2004)

§ Mr. Gray
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether a veterinary inspection and certification is necessary prior to the issue of a horse passport. [147945]

§ Alun Michael
No.

§ Mr. Gray
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the horse passport regulations apply to the wild horses on Bodmin Moor. [147947]

§ Alun Michael
Yes.

§ Mr. Gray
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to change the requirement for veterinary certification on horse passports. [147948]

§ Alun Michael
The silhouette on a passport must be signed by a veterinary surgeon or someone deemed competent to do so by the Passport Issuing Organisation. This is clearly the intention of the legislation but recently we became aware that some passport issuing organisations were allowing individual horse owners to complete and sign the silhouette. Independent verification is clearly essential. In underlining this point to the organisations I have proposed that the owner may complete the silhouette provided a microchip is inserted at the same time. This reflects our approach of working with the industry and seeking to be practical rather than gold plating the legislation.