Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what coordination processes are in place between (a) the Rural Payments Agency, (b) the Animal and Plant Health Agency and (c) other arms-length bodies of her Department to (i) reduce administrative pressures on and (ii) enable simultaneous inspections of farmers.

Our arm’s-length bodies are implementing more risk-based approaches for inspections and increasing use of remote monitoring tools, reducing administrative burdens on farmers who are doing the right thing. We are also implementing a more advice-led approach, supporting farmers to meet regulatory requirements.

To further reduce administrative pressures, arm’s-length bodies have created online systems, such as the Animal Disease Movement Licensing Service. This enables livestock keepers to submit movement license applications online for bluetongue and avian influenza, streamlining the process and reducing paperwork.

We support our regulators to share intelligence. For example, we rolled out an app for field officers to share information on regulatory issues. Additionally, RPA and APHA co-ordinate regulatory visits where possible. Cattle identification visits are aligned when possible with TB tests, and where sheep identification visits coincide with APHA work, these are completed by APHA. These actions aim to ease burden on farmers with fewer visits overall.