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£23m cost to farmers of Defra's missed targets
FARMERS and rural businesses face having to shoulder £23m in red tape costs because the Government is set to miss its target for cutting bureaucracy.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) pledged in 2005 to slash the estimated 460m cost of red tape by 25 per cent by this May, but officials admit they are likely to fall short of that target.
The department says it has currently cut the bill by 16 per cent and expects to achieve a 20 per cent reduction by the deadline.
Shadow Agriculture Minister Jim Paice said: "Few in the industry will recognise that regulations have been cut at all.
"This is probably because the Government's calculations ignore the significant capital costs of compliance, such as new slurry storage facilities under the Nitrates Directive.
"So not only is the Government missing its target to cut the burden of paperwork and form-filling, it is failing to measure the more substantial costs of regulation, which could be escalating.
"If we want farmers to operate in an open market there is a responsibility on government to get serious about cutting the total regulatory burden.
"Conservatives will move towards a system which measures outcomes not process and trust farmers to do what they do best, which is produce high quality food in harmony with the environment."
The Defra target was set amid criticism from farmers and rural businesses about the costs they incurred meeting administrative requirements, some of which appeared to be of little value.
A department spokesman said the Government had made big strides is reducing the burden of red tape but claimed officials had also been dealing with new regulation from Brussels since the targets were set.
"Defra is committed to minimising the burden of complying with regulation, and to doing everything possible to help businesses in the current economic climate," he said.
"Since 2005 Defra has already delivered savings of 110m per year and we're due to increase that to savings of 130m per year by May 2010. This represents a reduction of 20 per cent of the 460m administrative burden that was identified."
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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