Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to increase the population of endangered Suffolk Punch horses and to ensure that the breed does not become extinct.

The Suffolk Punch is currently listed in the register of UK Native Breeds at Risk, eligible for support under the Rural Development Programme for England agri-environment schemes, and the UK Breeds at Risk register for breeds that may be exempted from precautionary culling in the event of an exotic notifiable disease outbreak.

Defra published the first UK Farm Animal Genetic Resources Breed Inventory in 2002, and updates the population data for breeds that are resident in the UK at regular intervals. For the past three years Suffolk Punch population figures have been updated annually. Although the latest pedigree female registration figures (2015) are lower than those for previous years, breed populations are known to fluctuate from year to year, and the highest number of female registrations in over ten years was recorded in 2013.