Horses (Hansard, 2 March 2004)

§ Mr. Hoyle
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much horse meat was exported in 2003. [157263]

§ Alun Michael
In 2003, 1,566 tonnes of horse meat was exported from the UK.

§ Mr. Gray
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what(a) grants and (b) other public funding she has made available to defray the start-up costs of the National Equine Database; [156652]
(2) what the (a) start-up budget and the (b) running costs of the National Equine Database are; and from which budget it will be funded. [156654]

§ Alun Michael
Defra is making provision for funding the start up costs of the National Equine Database for the first two years, and thereafter Defra will be responsible for the on-going maintenance costs of the data that Defra will use.
We have invited tenders to supply the database, and until the procurement process is complete the estimated costs for the database have to be treated as Commercialin-Confidence.