Move to cut red tape may limit inspections

The Government says it is looking to reduce the administrative burden of regulation on those farmers who have a strong track record of reliability and adherence to standards.

It does not necessarily mean a reduction in the overall number of on-farm inspections, but the move is aimed at better targeting inspections where the risks of non-compliance are highest, the report says.

The commitment is welcome news for farmers, three years after a task-force was set up to carry out an independent review on ways of reducing regulatory burdens on farmers and food processors.

A year later, more than 200 recommendations on how regulatory burdens could be reduced, including through a system of ‘earned recognition’ but the government has only now published an Earned Recognition Plan.

The approach has already been introduced to other inspection regimes, the new Defra report says, and 11 inspection programmes have now been identified as having the potential to apply the earned recognition approach.

Any move to reduce the administrative burden on farmers was welcome, said Rosey Dunn, who farms at Stockton on the Forest near York.

“Farmers have become more and more committed to things like farm assurance schemes on a voluntary basis and at their own expense so any reward from that has to be welcomed,” Mrs Dunn said.

At the National Farmers’ Union’s annual conference in February, Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary, reaffirmed his commitment to cutting red tape in agriculture, telling delegates: “I am determined that we should move towards a system of ‘earned recognition’.

“Such a system would acknowledge that the majority of farmers adhere to high standards and ensure that those who do are rewarded by less frequent inspections. We need to work together to achieve this.

“Since 2011, we are removing £13 of compliance costs for every pound added. There will be 12,000 fewer dairy inspections a year. But there is masses more still to do. There is no room for complacency. There are areas like movement of livestock that still require real work.”

Defra’s report earmarks the following inspection regimes for exploring further the use of earned recognition: poultry meat marketing terms, egg marketing, environmental protection, water resource protection, control of notifiable pests and diseases of honey bees, animal feed, cross compliance for Red Tractor farmers, agri-environment scheme eligibility, the risked-based element of the single payment scheme land eligibility inspections, and both sheep and goat, and cattle, identification inspections of members of assurance schemes.

Huge volume of farm visits

There are two categories of farm inspections, those to follow up complaints or suspicions that the law is being broken and those which are required on a regular basis as set out in law.

Latest figures show there were more than 114,000 farm visits made by government bodies in 2011/12, of which 40,170 were inspections.

Only inspections required regularly by law – of which there were 35,120 in 2011/12 – will be considered for an ‘earned recognition’ approach, the report says.