Chief vet defends new cattle movements reporting system

ScotMoves, the new online system for reporting cattle movements between units owned by the same business, has now gone live.

The ScotMoves system for recording cattle movements has come under fire. Picture: John Devlin

Introduced with the aim of making it simpler and easier to trace cattle movements, and potentially reducing the impact of a disease outbreak, there has been some controversy over the move away from the old system.

Scotland’s chief veterinary officer, Sheila Voas, however, said that the new procedures had been working well. She said: “The system is designed to help [the] industry protect against the unthinkable prospect of disease.

“By enabling us to have quick access to high-quality and accurate information, we are better placed to deploy our resources effectively to better protect Scotland’s livestock from disease.”

However, some of the details of the changeover were criticised – and North-east MSP Peter Chapman, the shadow rural economy secretary, said that, while he fully understood the need for a robust system, he was “at a loss” to understand why the new arrangements only allowed a 48-hour reporting window while he said the old CTS system allowed 72 hours.

“All that I am saying, and all that the NFU has said, is that we need some flexibility in the reporting times,” said Chapman.

A Scottish Government spokesperson, however, said farmers were not being asked to do more than they had been previously – an up-to-date holding register had always been a requirement.

They added: “And to accommodate the increased focus on it we are allowing 48 hours rather than the existing 36 hours for it to be updated.”

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