UNITED KINGDOM-NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE.
Farming leaders have welcomed yesterday’s National Audit Office (NAO) report on Defra, adding that it reinforces the arguments they have been making all along.
The report, by the NAO Comptroller and Auditor General, criticises the way Defra presents its financial information in respect to animal health issues and says that the current financial information system cannot readily be used to calculate accurate figures for the cost of managing specific animal diseases.
NFU deputy president Meurig Raymond said: "The comments that Defra does not have sufficiently robust financial or performance information on controlling disease to underpin a transparent and equitable cost-sharing scheme reflect exactly what we have been saying to Defra since it started discussions on responsibility and cost-sharing. We now have the Comptroller and Auditor General saying this and it will be interesting to see how Defra responds."
NFU Scotland said that the findings of the report reinforce the "need to devolve Scotland’s share of its animal health budget".
"The current position of having animal health and welfare policy devolved to Scotland, while the budget remains with Defra, is unacceptable," said NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren.
"The report’s conclusion that Defra is unable to readily measure the full cost of different interventions to protect animal health is alarming."
Adding that the lack of budgetary awareness justifies the farmer’s lack of confidence in its existing systems, McLaren said: "Finances for animal health and welfare remain largely within the control of Defra and unless resolved soon, Scotland’s share will be from a rapidly diminishing pot.
Although praising its handling of avian influenza and foot and mouth, the report is critical of the progress Defra has made on TB, which it says is now "firmly established" in the South West of England. It criticises Animal Health for failing to rigorously enforce routine TB testing and says there is a lack of coordination on TB at a local level.
Raymond said: "I am also not surprised to see that the report highlights the frustration of farmers who believe that cattle testing for TB alone, in the absence of measures to tackle the level of TB in the local wildlife, will not deal with the TB problem."
The NFU said it would fully support better coordination of TB at a local level, one of the recommendations in the report.