English Movements Database

12th June 2012

On Monday the 11th June the National Sheep Association’s English Committee met all the companies and consortiums involved in the tendering process for a sheep movements database in England with the aim of making sure all the submissions understood the key needs of the sheep sector.

 

Phil Stocker of the NSA said " We invited all 4 companies to The Sheep Centre to individually talk about their approach to their tender and to question NSA English Committee about how their plans might work in practice and how they viewed the needs of sheep farmers. NSAs key advice is to keep the movements database simple and focus on recording movements efficiently with the aim of providing the industry with the disease spread protection it needs. This is crucial to gain confidence in new and existing markets, for the UK to keep trading or return to trading quickly in the event of an outbreak, and to reduce public expenditure in the event of any compulsory cull or vaccination programme. The additional (non statutory) features of a movements database must come secondary with full confidence that such information can only be shared with the consent of the farmer whose information it is.

 

The date for tenders to be submitted to Defra is the 25th June and NSA is committed to ensuring that the eventual service provider is as in touch with the industry as possible".