§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there have been anomalies in the reporting of livestock movements; and, if so, whether they propose to make markets responsible for reporting all relevant movements. [HL3669]
§ Lord WhittyMovement anomalies are unavoidable as there are inevitable delays in updating any database as well as occasional mistakes in the information reported by keepers. Markets are already responsible for reporting all individual cattle movements and all batch movements of pigs, sheep and goats. Movement notifications are recorded on a central database.
Defra is working to encourage market operators to use electronic data transfer and developing on-line systems to increase the speed and accuracy of livestock movement reporting.