Organisations opposed to DEFRA proposals for cost sharing

This is an industry organisations’ statement on Responsibility and Cost Sharing for Animal Health and Welfare:

"The industry organisations set out below have explained further on their joint position on Responsibility and Cost Sharing for Animal Health and Welfare Policy.

"All organisations remain fundamentally opposed to sharing government costs for exotic disease surveillance and preparedness. Defra’s recent consultation on this subject asserts that the principal beneficiaries of improved animal health are the livestock keepers themselves. While we recognise that having healthy livestock is key to the success of any farming enterprise, we suggest that the benefits of healthy farm animals at the base of a safe, secure and productive supply chain, free from the incursion of exotic disease, are far reaching, including the general public, food processors and manufacturers, exporters and the wider rural economy. Therefore, we all believe that Government should continue to fund this activity as a public good.

"Along with the British Veterinary Association there is also agreement that we need a new approach to animal health and welfare policy and that this is best achieved through genuine partnership working. This is most likely to be achieved through the establishment of a new independent body. However, this agreement is dependent on the body having the scope to cover both animal health and welfare policy and has a structure which ensures that industry has a genuine say. We must ensure that there are clear lines of authority to the Chief Veterinary Officer who must assume overall control during a major disease incident. All organisations are clear that this body must be fit for purpose, it must deliver cost savings and not add costs, it must have genuine industry involvement and it must secure the confidence of industry and the public.

"We are all committed to working with Rosemary Radcliffe chairman of the new Defra Advisory Group, to undertake a review of current animal health and welfare activity and to ensure that a new effective and efficient structure for dealing animal health and welfare policy is developed."

Supporting organisations are: The NFU, CLA, NPA, and NSA.