Politicians lined up at NFU conference to woo farming votes and cutting red tape featured prominently in their speeches.
Shadow Secretary of State, Nick Herbert made clear that the Tories Agenda for British farming, which was launched at Conference, promises a review of all regulations within three months of the party taking office in a bid to reduce the burden of red-tape.
Indeed the Agenda for British Farming sets out several commitments on reducing regulatory burden. These include recognition of outcomes rather than processes and for membership of farm assurance schemes to translate into lower inspection frequency.
The agenda also vowed to pursue a policy of active and early engagement in Europe to ensure that new regulations do not damage UK interests. It also outlined commitments to minimise on-farm inspections through much greater consolidation of inspections and improved information sharing, reducing costs to both taxpayers and farmers.
Farm Assurance schemes were also singled out with a pledge that membership of a recognised farm assurance scheme will result in a lower frequency of state inspection, savings farmer’s time and money. This has already been achieved in some cases – IPPC for pig and poultry producers and Food Hygiene Inspections carried out by local authorities. There was also a commitment to abolish certain regulations including the Agricultural Wages Board, which the NFU has called for, for some time now.
The overall message in Secretary of State Hilary Benn’s speech, was about Government listening to the NFU and farmers on a whole range of issues. These included voluntary regulation as opposed to classic regulation being implemented. Examples here were the Campaign for the Farmed Environment, the voluntary agreement to replace the wildlife benefit of scrapped EU rules on land being left fallow, and the Greenhouse Gas Action plan that has been developed by industry.
European regulation also featured heavily in his speech. Several aspects were highlighted including Defra lobbying on the Soils Directive and beneficial changes to sheep EID. Mr Benn also informed conference he will continue to press the EU Commission for proportionate regulation. Pesticide legislation was singled out, with Defra lobbying halting the unjustified removal of some useful products and preventing arbitrary reduction targets. Mr Benn also set commitments to ensure all Member States stick to the 2012 date for banning cages for hens to ensure the UK is on a level playing field.
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem, Shadow Secretary of State for Defra, set out pledges on stopping the gold-plating of regulations and farmers being bogged down in regulation from the EU, referring specifically to the damaging impact of Nitrate Directive and the chaos of EID.
While Hilary Benn set out Government proposals for responsibility and cost sharing, insisting it was reasonable to expect the industry to share some of the costs in exchange for more responsibility, the Conservatives agreed with this notion, but criticised the Government approach to these proposals. Tim Farron acknowledged the reasoning behind the new draft bill but questioned whether many in the industry could survive yet more cost burdens.
The Supermarket Ombudsman was one piece of regulation which they all agreed upon. Hilary Benn set out Government commitment to create a domestic level playing field for agricultural businesses and stated they are currently consulting on the kind of body needed to enforce the supermarket ombudsman. The Conservatives also set out plans to introduce an independent supermarket ombudsman, as a ring fenced unit within the Office of Fair Trading. And Tim Farron called for a powerful, pro-active food market regulator.
Earlier NFU President Peter Kendall had set out a challenge for Government around regulation stating that there is a real dilemma for the NFU. It was clear that the NFU resist regulation when we think it is unnecessary, but if we’re not careful we’ll end up with farmers buried in voluntary schemes paperwork or worse the NFU will be seen to imposing regulation on behalf of Government. That was seen as a clear message to Government at a time when three main political parties had pledged to reduce the burden of regulation.
While the policies on cutting red-tape may have been documented many times before, from Government parties of all colours, the pledges made at Conference show it is still a major issue. Ensuring regulation is not a barrier to competitiveness remains a major priority for the NFU and we will continue to engage on behalf of members with the next Government to try and reduce the pressures of red-tape.
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