Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans, has announced that changes to General Movement Licences (GMLs) for livestock have come into force in Wales.
GMLs were established to control the movement of stock after the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak and cover most types of livestock movement. They were last updated in 2010. The latest amendments make the wording clearer and reflect changes to legislation.
Rebecca Evans said:
“Following a discussion with the farming industry, we decided to modernise the GMLs. These are largely technical changes but all livestock keepers are encouraged to take the opportunity to familiarise themselves with them and make sure they meet the requirements when moving animals.”
The changes include:
- Making the licences clearer and to ensure all notifiable diseases are referred to, rather than just Foot and Mouth Disease e.g. “the owner/keeper shall inspect the cattle to be moved for signs of any notifiable disease (including Foot and Mouth Disease)”.
- Allowing movement of deer to non-agricultural premises under the GML, rather than under a separate specific licence.
- Ensuring the GML for pigs reflects the Pigs (Records, Identification and Movement) (Wales) Order 2011. Keepers are already aware of the requirements of the legislation through the Pig Keepers Guidance.
- Updating names of organisations, i.e. the Welsh Government and the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
The licences can be downloaded and printed from the Welsh Government website’s General Movement Licences page.
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