Whitehall Hits Hampshire Horse Owners

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 7th Mar 2003

Bureaucratic new rules from Whitehall requiring horse and donkey owners to register every single one of their animals for individual 'passports' are threatening to put riding schools out of business, a local MEP has warned.

The new requirement for all horses to be registered for a 'passport' originated in an EU decision designed to prevent animals treated with certain medicines from entering the food chain, but could turn into a bureaucratic nightmare made in Whitehall, said Chris Huhne MEP.

Mr Huhne, who visited the Russell Equestrian Centre in Allington Lane, West End, yesterday,said: "We're used to hearing stories about red tape from Brussels but this time it is the British bureaucrats at the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) who came up with the idea of compulsory passports for all horses," said Mr Huhne.

"Any Whitehall official who thinks that every horse, pony and donkey in the land should have a passport has obviously never been to the New Forest. I look forward to seeing Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael leading a delegation of DEFRA officials chasing New Forest ponies around to hand out their individual passports!"

Cllr Carol Boulton, who runs the Russell Equestrian Centre, added: "These passports could cost anything up to £100 per horse meaning a centre like mine could be saddled with extra costs. The Government claims to have consulted the industry on this but many organisations, like the Association of British Riding Schools, are resolutely opposed."

Chris Huhne today wrote to the Rural Affairs Minister to seek assurances that the government will not 'goldplate' the rules by making them any more stringent or costly than is necessary to implement the basic EU requirements.

"The EU rules say that every horse entering the food chain should have a document to make sure it is not treated with harmful medicines. This could be satisfied by a simple government order stating that only horses accompanied by a passport can be exported or allowed to enter the food chain and mean that the vast majority of horses, which are not destined for human consumption, will not need a passport," said Mr Huhne.

"I will be pressing for ministerial assurances that the government will not impose unnecessary costs on horse owners and small businesses like riding schools and equestrian centres by making the rules more bureaucratic than they need to be."

ENDS