UK farm leaders slam animal health bill

 

 

Industry leaders in the UK have voiced mounting concern over government plans to make farmers partially responsible for the cost of combating animal disease.

 

The government said the bill will reduce overall disease levels and the cost of combating outbreaks. Sharing responsibility for anti-disease measures with farmers will improve the effectiveness, efficiency and value for money, said the government.

 

Combined with independent and better-informed decision-making, responsibility sharing will improve the confidence of producers in the way disease risks are managed, according to DEFRA.

 

The involvement of the livestock industry and other stakeholders in fighting animal disease will help to promote financial transparency while ensuring the government is more accountable for the actions taken.

 

But National Farmers' Union (NFU) chief adviser Rob Newbery said the draft bill would give farmers only a limited say in the operation of the new body responsible for animal health policy and delivery in England.

 

Costs, too, were unclear, with the government saying only that its plans would be unveiled in a future finance bill. This indicates that the new body will have no say on how or if revenue is raised, and the industry could face the imposition of tax on livestock keepers by the Treasury, said Newbery.

 

The draft bill also includes measures to reduce or withhold compensation from livestock keepers deemed to have contributed to the circumstances that require their animal to be slaughtered. This measure is also unworkable, said Newbery.

 

It would be impossible to set out guidance by which a government official could make a proportionate, risk-based decision on the vastly different farming systems and animal diseases. Livestock producers must ensure that MPs and prospective MPs were well aware of farmers' frustration with the draft bill and their opposition to the transfer of costs from Defra, said Newbery.

 

He noted farmers already share a considerable amount of the overall costs of animal health policy, and there is still time to make significant changes to the bill to ensure the new body is fit for purpose.

 

Details for the bill had yet to be worked out and no new arrangements would be in place before April 2012.