To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what systems and checks are in place to prevent the export of horses for slaughter from the UK.

holding answer 20 May 2013

Banning the export of live horses would be illegal and undermine the principle of the free movement of goods enshrined in the treaty on the functioning of the European Union. There are therefore no systems or checks in place to prevent this activity.

However, the Government will continue to ensure that the requirements of the welfare in transport legislation (EU Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005) will be applied robustly to all long distance transporters of horses operating within the UK. The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratory Agency undertakes risk based inspections of consignments of horses both at premises of origin, in the form of supervised loadings, and at ports. Furthermore, local authority trading standards departments, who are the agents responsible for enforcement of the welfare in transport legislation, will investigate any claims that horses are being transported in contravention of the regulation.