Five key points to prevent swine dysentery NPA response to farm assurance review

NPA response to UK review of farm assurance

20th Jan 2025 / By Alistair Driver

The NPA has welcomed the key findings and recommendations outlined in a report today on the first UK-wide review of farm assurance.

David Llewellyn

The review, established by the UK farming unions and AHDB last year, concludes that farm assurance is critical to the industry’s future and is delivering necessary assurances on quality to consumers, but must make some ‘fundamental changes to address growing frustration amongst farmers in how it is delivered’.

Conducted independently by four Commissioners, key recommendations include a reduction and simplification of on-farm audits, a transformation in the use of technology, greater collaboration between schemes and for the various schemes to improve their communications with members. 

The nine-month review collected evidence from every link in the UK food supply chain and makes nine strategic recommendations:

  1. On-farm audits must be reduced, simplified and delivered more consistently;
  2. There must be a transformational step forward in embracing technology;
  3. Schemes need to reset and/or restate their structures to establish farmers as the driving voice in standards development;
  4. A new industry-led initiative must set out the future environmental ambitions for farm assurance;
  5. The inclusion of regulatory requirements within farm assurance should be conditional on government agreeing a form of ‘earned recognition’;
  6. There must be greater collaboration between farm assurance schemes across the UK;
  7. Schemes must better position the UK farming industry in world food markets and in competition with imported food;
  8. All schemes must review and improve their communication with farmers;
  9. The Red Tractor scheme must complete the implementation of recommendations in the Campbell Tickell report on its governance.

Under these nine strategic recommendations, a total of 56 operational recommendations have also been made, with clear lead bodies and timescales.

Lead Commissioner, Dr David Llewellyn, said: “The is the first fundamental look at UK farm assurance since it was established in the 1990s. So much has changed over the last 30 years and we know that further change is on the horizon for the farming industry. Farm assurance must be a critical part of that future.

“However, for that to happen, significant changes are needed to win back farmer confidence where it has been lost, to build on what already works well and to secure a competitive edge for UK farming on the world stage.”

NPA reaction

NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said: “This has been a very thorough and worthwhile exercise and the commissioners have delivered a comprehensive set of recommendations.

“Some of these will be of great interest to our members, including the clear signal that the farm audits must be reduced in number, simplified and delivered more consistently.

“We will take some time to digest the full report and look forward to working with the assurance schemes and other industry bodies to help deliver reforms that maintain the benefits of farm assurance, while making them fairer and more practical for producers.”

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