§ Mr. Keith SimpsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how her Department plans to help farmers rationalise regulations. [46746]
§ Mr. MorleyMy plans were set out at paragraph 4.61 of "Sustainable Food and Farming: Working Together", published on 26 March, which reads:
"The Government accepts that there is a need to find better ways for farmers, DEFRA and the regulatory bodies to work together to achieve improvements in standards without imposing unnecessary burdens. This need arises on a wide range of issues——including animal health and welfare, food safety, employee health and safety and nature conservation as well as environmental regulation. On 26 March my right hon. Friends, the 582W Prime Minister and the Secretary of State announced that DEFRA would give high priority to work on new approaches to regulation, including the need for DEFRA and the regulators to consider the cumulative effects of regulatory requirements on the farm business as a whole. These commitments reflected a new approach to regulation in which DEFRA promised to:
be open with industry——consulting early and often;minimise the bureaucracy of regulation, using Regulatory Impact Assessments in a joined up way to assess impacts in the round (across regulatory regimes), and to cut duplication of effort;provide advice and information easily and up front——to help farmers comply, not just punish them for failure;join up government and join up the regulators——provide business advice and regulatory advice as a package;ensure regulations are risk-based and proportionate.My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, also said that shy will press hard for better integration between the agricultural and environmental agendas at the European level, and called on the farming industry to play a bigger role in helping to devise environmental legislation within the EU."