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Farriers’ Qualification (European Recognition) Regulations 2008

rose to move, To resolve that this House calls on Her Majesty’s Government to revoke the regulations laid before the House on 10 March (SI 2008/646). The noble Lord said: My Lords, one or two words of explanation are probably called for on why I am moving this Motion. I would not be called one of the usual suspects in this House when discussing equine activities, but I happened to be in the right place at the wrong time to get myself involved in this. A good start is living in Lambourn, which, to those who do not know it, is to jump-racing what Newmarket is to flat-racing. I happen to have a wife who rides and a child who has a pony, and they happen to have a farrier, one Pete Baker, who is an influential member of the United Kingdom Horse Shoers Union. He asked my wife for advice, as she works for an MP in the House of Commons, and then about what should be done in this place. A conversation ensued—and then I realised that there was something in what he said, something of concern that should be addressed. The basic concern, before we go into detail, is that farriery in this country is regulated by an Act that goes back to 1975. It sets out certain criteria by which this practice can take place and a legal framework that guarantees—as closely as possible; let us not overhype any qualification in this context—or gives a degree of certainty at least that the person undertaking that activity knows what they are doing, no more, no less. Members on these Benches are not usually the ones who cry against European regulations as a matter of course. We are quite enthusiastic about Europe, as a rule. But these regulations interfere with that certainty and that level of reassurance acquired by a long established regulation that allows for an apprenticeship scheme to be gone through and allows people to qualify by other means for farriery. Should we be worried about this? We should if we do not understand what exactly is going on. We are not asking to cross-reference qualifications. In many other parts of these regulations we accept that somebody can become qualified through practice. I have become dangerously familiar with the 1995 Act over the past few weeks. I have established that this principle of ““You have been doing the job for a long time; there is no protest against you, so you should come in and be able to do it”” is accepted. However, two years would seem to be a very short space of time. What does training usually mean? It usually means that you are capable of addressing a series of problems and are prepared to deal with things as they happen. Horses are half a ton of nervous muscle, full of flight-and-fight response, which occasionally kill people—not that many, but people get hurt around horses all the time. Farriery means that you are using blades to cut around a part of a horse. There are sharp nails, and bits of hot metal are applied to that horse. Things can go wrong, but the better and more convincing the training, the less likely that is to happen. What do the provisions address? Somebody after a very short period of experience potentially could come in and start practising. Even taking into account the emotion that the horse may well be a family pet, it is several thousand pounds-worth of livestock that could be damaged. The person who makes a mistake is immediately at risk. One kick can kill, even one from a comparatively small pony. The person holding the animal is at risk. If the farrier has made a mistake and the person is riding that horse on the road, for instance, the animal may well shy and there is a danger that it may slip. As an aside, I say that the community now accepts hard hats and back protectors. I have a little ongoing fight with my wife that as my five year-old starts to jump she will have to wear a gum shield, as do the jump jockeys. That apparently is a cultural step too far for part of the equine community. But there is a risk. Anything that enhances that risk should be regarded very seriously. So what do we have? We have the principle of the free movement of labour against whether these people can be safely allowed to do the job. Let us not pretend that the whole of Europe is full of limping horses. There are places where farriery is carried out properly. The concern here comes in the nature and the size of the task, those who have to implement it and the timeframe and resources available for them so to do. You have to cross-reference the skill level across the rest of Europe—the 26 nations—or to go for entrance by experience. That may be two years, but you will be lucky not to have made a mistake within two years of practising something from a very basic level of skill. If you have been dealing with the same horses on a regular basis you may well get away with it over the two-year timeframe. I do not say that you always will, but the danger is there. We are trying to preserve the reliability of the qualification and name of farrier. Will the Government tell us exactly how they intend to allow us to know how they are implementing this procedure? I have ignored those who have six years’ experience and are registered under other parts of the Act; the temporary matter is probably the most immediate. Will the Government allow us to know the processes by which, first, these people are being cross-referenced and, secondly, they are reporting and paper-trailing back those who are qualified through experience? How should this take place? The Government may say that it is all on the website. If I wanted to hide something I would stick it in the middle of a website. It would be nicely and safely tucked away without a reference to where it is—““Oh, you can find it; just keep on clicking and you will get there””. It was suggested in the meetings with various officials that it would not be unreasonable for the Government to undertake to tell us where this information will be stored—not us here but those who are the consumer group, through the relevant publications. Horse and Hound stands out; I am afraid to give out the advertising but it is more or less the Bible of the equine community. The information should be signposted. What is the process we are following? What is happening to the Farriers Registration Council and have the Government assessed exactly whether they have enough resources to carry this out? This group draws its fees from the farriers themselves. It is rather odd that we should pay to allow competition in, but Europe is a funny place and this means the farriers can go across to other nations and practise themselves. How is this going to take place? Will the Farriers Registration Council have sufficient resources to make sure that this change takes place? There is the cross-referencing, the layering and the different types of qualification out there. Which one is better or worse? It may well prove that we do not have the best qualifications. We may have the best registration system but qualification moves on. We do not know and certain places do not have any qualification. Can the noble Lord show us where the signposts will be and will he make sure that the general public knows, so that there is more faith in the new system about where people are coming and going in the process? It should not be too many people. If the Government take a proactive step now, the slightly chaotic mess we have got into may be averted. What is required is information and clarification. Others may disagree about the nature of these qualifications but I think that, as a minimum standard, the Government must say what they are going to do about signposting information so people can understand what is going on. If there are major problems, everybody will know and we stand a chance of raising sufficient noise to get them corrected. I hope I have not gone on too long about this. The fact is that there is a real concern in a large part of our leisure sector, where people are dealing with pets and valuable livestock at the same time, and their own safety. If the Minister can tell us how he proposes to minimise any risk of greater integration, I will be very relieved at the end of this debate. I beg to move. Moved, To resolve that this House calls on Her Majesty’s Government to revoke the regulations laid before the House on 10 March (SI 2008/646).—(Lord Addington.)