Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
14 December 2011
Government response to the
Committee?s report into Farm Regulation Taskforce
I write
on behalf of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee following our
consideration of the Government?s response to our report on the Farm
Regulation Taskforce.
We welcome the Government's positive
response to the Committee's recommendation on enshrining a non-regulatory
approach within the policy-making process and its commitment to voluntary
and outcome-based approaches.
However, we do not think that
the Government response provides a sufficiently detailed response to our
recommendations and we request further information on a number of
points.
We recommended that Defra's response to our
report should set out the policy areas where it considers increased
responsibility-sharing is appropriate. However, although reference is made
to the new Animal Health and Welfare Board as an example, the response fails to
set out the policy areas where increased responsibility-sharing is
appropriate. We expect the Committee's recommendation to be fully addressed
in the Government's final response to the Task Force.
We are
pleased that the Government has accepted the tenor of the Task Force's
recommendations on using earned recognition to better target inspections.
However, we ask the department to respond to our concerns about the
implications for small farms of instituting a system of earned
recognition.
We are disappointed that the Government's
response has not provided the commitments the Committee sought on
gold-plating and engagement with the European Union. We request that the
department commits to publishing its review of gold-plating of EU
regulations, which the Government response states is being conducted as part
of the One- In One-Out Process. While the Government response recognises the
need to carefully
evaluate EU regulatory proposals and establish a
sound evidence base, it has not responded to our concern that staff numbers
are inadequate to deliver this increased level of engagement. We request
that the department provide its analysis of the effect of redundancies at
the department on staffing of EU-facing policy teams. The Government
response refers to the requirement for Ministers to report to the Foreign
Secretary on early influencing priorities and engagement strategies. The
Committee would be grateful if the department could provide it with Defra's
reports to the Foreign Secretary on these matters.
We recommended
that Defra's initial response sets out the Strategic Regulatory Scrutiny
Panel's terms of engagement with Defra to clarify how it will hold Ministers
to account for their implementation of this report (paragraph 56). Defra's
Interim Response to the Farming Regulation Taskforce did not set out the
Panel?s powers or how it would hold the Government to account. The
Committee would be grateful if the department could provide a clearer
statement of the powers and role of the Strategic Regulatory Scrutiny Panel
by the time of publication of its final response to the Farming Regulation
Taskforce. We re-iterate our view that it would be appropriate for Ministers
to have to justify why they have not followed the recommendations of the
Scrutiny Panel.
The Committee recommended enhancing the procedures
for Parliamentary scrutiny. We are disappointed that the Government response
merely states that the recommendation is not addressed to Defra - as a
response on behalf of the Government as a whole the Committee would have
expected Defra to have liaised with the Leader of the House on this issue.
Our report highlighted the importance of prompt implementation of
the Task Force's recommendations in order not to miss this window of
opportunity to transform Defra's approach (paragraph 57). The commitment
to an outcome-based approach should apply within Defra's too -
undertaking a review of regulation is not enough without practical action.
We regretfully note that, despite the passage of five months between the
publication of the Task Force's report and Defra's Interim Response, there
are few examples of where recommendations on regulations directly
affecting farming businesses have been implemented. We look forward to the
action plan published with Defra's final report and trust that this
will lead to the swift implementation of the Task Force's recommendations
wherever possible.
We look forward to the Government's fuller
response to the Task Force early next year and expect to review Defra's
success in eliminating unnecessary regulatory burdens once this response has
been published.