All horses, ponies and donkeys in England, Wales and Scotland must be microchipped by law. This allows local authorities and the police to track the owners of abandoned, lost or stolen horses, so they can be reunited with their owners more easily.
If your horse passport was issued before microchipping became a legal requirement in Great Britain, you will need to update your Passport Issuing Organisation (PIO) with the microchip number, and they will upload the data to the Central Equine Database.
By using the Central Equine Database you can:
- Check your horse’s passport details using the National ChipChecker
- Quickly report if your horse is missing
- Check if a horse is legally for sale
In Scotland, you can also register your horse with ScotEquine. This Scottish database puts horses and ponies on the map and tracks their moves in Scotland only.
If you own a horse with a BHS issued/overstamped passport and the microchip number is not linked to the passport on the central equine database, you will need to submit the passport to BHS office with the BHS equine update form completed by the vet so that the passport and CED can be updated. Simply sticking the transponder sticker/writing the microchip number in the passport is not sufficient to update the passport with the microchip number.