The Department’s progress delivering a multi-species livestock tracing system has been extremely slow and may not provide an integrated system for the UK. Tracing animal movements quickly—to understand where disease may have spread—is key in responding effectively to contain an outbreak. Current UK animal tracing is fragmented, with different systems for different species, and relies on very old and fragile systems. The Department first started work to create a digital, multi-species, UK-wide tracing system in 2013. The original concept of using an off-the-shelf solution for a single species and adapting that 4 for multiple species was flawed, and the plans needed to be reset. Despite spending £181 million from 2019 to March 2025, the Department does not expect to have an integrated system completed until winter 2027. Animal diseases do not respect national borders, but the Department could not confirm to us if its new system would be fully integrated across the devolved administrations. recommendation The Department should ensure that progress against its revised timetable is maintained, and that its approach to developing its multi- species livestock tracing system is fully aligned across all devolved administrations.