NFU 2010: Farmers will not accept extra costs

Commenting on Defra’s animal disease cost sharing plans for England, he said: “We know this is about budgets. A starting point, before any notion of cost-sharing can be discussed, has got to be the efficient use of public money by Government departments.

“Defra scores badly on that front. The recent National Audit Office report talks about it having ‘scant regard…for the proper management of public funds’.”

He said it was ‘staggering’ that it costs around £1,740 to process each SPS claim in England compared with £285 in Scotland and questioned why the British cattle tracing system covered far fewer animals yet cost more than its Australian counterpart.

“If I can be blunt in my message: farmers are more than ready to sit at the same table as the Government, but don’t dump your waste on our plates, and charge us for your service,” Mr Kendall said.

Defra’s recent Draft Animal Health Bill came under attack from the conference floor. One delegate told Mr Benn it appeared to provide farmers with ‘little or no responsibility and potentially all the costs’.

Mr Benn pointed out that the purpose of the draft Bill was to allow further consultation, so farmers can have their say and Defra can alter it ‘as we go’

“This really is about sharing responsibility and I can assure you the new animal health body will control how all the money is spent, which is what you asked for.”

He said he had a ‘wider responsibility to find a fair balance’ between what taxpayers, who currently pay ‘100 per cent’, and farmers contribute towards animal health policy costs.

“It is already what happens in countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Australia,” he said.

Shadow Defra Secretary Nick Herbert said his party believed the policy was ‘right in principle’ but farmers who contribute to the costs ‘can fairly ask that they have a say, too’.

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