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Cattle Passports

Answer

The Cattle Tracing System database (CTS) does not distinguish between farmers, cattle owners and cattle keepers. It contains details of cattle holdings. Each holding is associated with the name of a cattle keeper but the database does not indicate whether the keeper is also the owner of the cattle. A keeper may have more than one holding.A passport is withheld when the application is received late. This rule has been strictly enforced since 21 November 2003. Before that date a less rigorous approach was taken. In the period from 28 September 1998 to 20 November 2003, a total of 13,448 passport applications were rejected because they were not received within the legal time limits and the identity and traceability of the animal could not be established.Between 21 November 2003 and 31 October 2005, 14,995 holdings have had at least one cattle passport refused on the grounds of late application. In this period 5,551,571 passport applications were recorded onto the CTS of which 44,734 applications were refused on the grounds of late return of the form. Monthly figures are shown in the following table.

	Passport applications	Refused passports
21–30 November 2003	44,982	745
December 2003	169,944	3,122
January 2004	175,311	4,139
February 2004	177,562	2,425
March 2004	314,576	2,527
April 2004	383,512	3,336
May 2004	319,045	2,648
June 2004	306,653	3,519
July 2004	222,989	1,867
August 2004	236,334	2,000
September 2004	229,619	1 ,837
October 2004	197,708	1,385
November 2004	196,104	1,255
December 2004	151,008	1,061
January 2005	161,653	1,363
February 2005	164,482	1,264
March 2005	281,472	1 ,209
April 2005	360,409	1,199
May 2005	340,146	1,643
June 2005	258,330	1,688
July 2005	214,438	1,198
August 2005	227,453	1,236
September 2005	222,609	1,150
October 2005	195,232	918

During the period 10,504 passports were issued following a successful appeal, after initially being refused because of late application.Of the animals which have been refused passports during the period 21 November 2003 to 31 October 2005, 11,202 have since been recorded as dead on the Cattle Tracing System database. This figure excludes import applications as the deadline dates are different for these application types.It is not possible to distinguish between those which have been slaughtered and those which have died of natural causes. The database only records the date and place of death, not the cause of death.The Department is currently reviewing all the domestic legislation implementing the ED cattle identification requirements, and I have asked officials to ensure that the rules on late passport applications are included. There will be a full public consultation on this review shortly. However, I must emphasise that if any changes to procedures are considered in this context, we will continue to give priority to the maintenance of an accurate and reliable database.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

440 c503-4W;440 c503-4W; 30586

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Cattle Documents Livestock Transport Cattle tracing system

Contains statistics

Yes