NEDOnline to Cease at the end of September 2012 ... DEFRA have given notice that they are not awarding a new contract for a central equine database and that their contract with the National Equine Database Ltd (NED) will terminate at the end of September 2012. Therefore, this NED website cannot continue to operate beyond the end of September and all NED Services including horse search, lost and stolen register, horse associations, pedigree, progeny and performance reports, passport check, NEDLinks and equine reminders will no longer be available ... http://www.nedonline.co.uk/public/FunctionDisabled.aspx
I have suggested that NED should start an online petition to show the support they have for the website.Thank you for your message of support.
In practical terms probably the best thing you can do right now is write to Defra expressing your view. The Ministers responsible are Jim Paice and Caroline Spelman. The Horse passport team is on horse.passports@DEFRA.GSI.GOV.UK.
In the meantime we and the British Equestrian Federation are trying to find ways of persuading Defra to change their mind or to find ways to fund NED from within the Industry. Unfortunately, because Defra delayed making their decision from May until the end of July (in the middle of the Olympics!), we have only a couple of weeks to find a solution.
If anyone is any good at drafting out letters/emails, please could someone do one that we could all copy and paste to send to the Horse Passport team at Defra
