DEFRA Regulation Reform

The Farming Regulation Task Force was set up in July 2010 under Richard Macdonald to try and reduce the red-tape burden on farmers and the food industry.  It produced its report in May 2011, and the Government responded in February 2012 (see Bulletin 02(12)) and made 137 commitments to decrease the regulatory burden.

The Farming Regulation Task Force Implementation Group was set up at the same time with the aim of providing an independent assessment of the Government’s progress.  The Group’s one-year on assessment (see Bulletin 03(13)) recognised that progress had been made but many farmers were yet to see the benefits.

Another year has now passed and the final independent report from the Implementation Group has been published.  It again recognises that efforts have been made and applauds the cultural shift away from over-regulation.  Within the relevant government bodies there has been more focus on staff’s industry knowledge and understanding, changing how policies are developed, and increasing external scrutiny.  However, the Implementation Group notes that many changes are ‘in the background’ or will take time to have an effect.   It is suggested that many farmers do not feel that regulation has improved, and highlights the need for the Government to clearly communicate the changes it is making and the timeline for regulatory reform.  Helpfully, this has also been published this April in the form of ‘DEFRA: Better for Business’.

This document is the strategic reform plan for DEFRA’s regulations.  Through reviews carried out under the Red Tape Challenge Initiative since 2011 the Department and its agencies have made a total of 336 reform proposals.  These are expected to save businesses £300 million each year.  To date around 20% of the 336 proposals have been implemented, by the end of April 2015 the aim is to have 75% of all proposed changes completed.

In total 1,200 regulations have been reviewed, 428 of these will now be improved, through simplification and consolidation. 350 obsolete regulations will be removed whilst 452 regulations will remain unchanged.  The major themes of the strategy are reducing the amount of guidance (currently over 100,000 pages) by 80%, reducing the time needed to report information to DEFRA and saving businesses money. 

The Farming Regulation Task Force Implementation Group report can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farming-regulation-task-force-implementation-group-final-assessment-of-progress.  The ‘Better for Business’ report along with timings for regulation changes canbe found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/300-million-savings-for-business-from-better-regulation