Dr. Lynn Hillyer:

With our authorisation under the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Act, if somebody says that to us, we are able to now go and find the horse. If somebody says to us that a horse we expect to be there is not there and is off down the road, we go down the road and we find it. The difficulty is that when we attend a yard we do not know what to expect. We know we are going to find horses in training, but there could be have another 40 or 50 horses that are not recorded. When we go to a yard, we identify and document every horse. We generate a lot of data that we are really looking forward to putting into a traceability system. It is being built, as Mr. O'Loughlin says. Weatherbys are working really hard on this to develop it. A traceability subgroup meets and it is due to meet again tomorrow. I am not making any excuses, but it is a complex system because we are trying to pull in data from a number of different places and at known points in a horse's life.

In answer to the Deputy's question as to whether it will be useful, it will be invaluable. We need a nose-to-tail history. Going back to the length of string, we need to know where the horse is at any point along its life and if the information is not there, there needs to be a reason for that. One of the main reasons for that is there has to be a person responsible for that horse at every stage of its life in order to protect its health and welfare. We need to hold a person to account for its safety, its health and its welfare. Linking the horse, its movement, and the person responsible will be the important bit and that is complex. It is complex, and I am aware there have been some hoops.