BVA has responded to a review which looks to introduce a more ‘enforcing and enabling approach’ to national farming regulation after the UK leaves the EU. The Stacey review, released last week, recommends a new approach to regulate farming more effectively in a post CAP environment.
BVA President Simon Doherty said: “We recognise that Brexit provides certain opportunities to review and improve existing structures. We welcome these suggestions on how the Government might best introduce more supportive and collaborative approaches to farming regulation in the UK.
“However given this emphasis on ‘enforcing and enabling’, we were somewhat disappointed not to see more recognition of the vital role of the farmer-vet relationship. Veterinary advice is both expert and specialist and more consideration of the ways the well-established relationships between farmers and vets might be utilised to lead to better compliance and animal health and welfare outcomes would have been both welcome and useful.
“We were pleased that the report recognises the vital importance of maintaining strong surveillance systems throughout, and after, the Brexit process to protect the UK’s animal population from both endemic and exotic diseases. We would like to hear more detail from Defra about how this might be achieved. We would also be interested to hear more about the suggestion that modern technologies could be used to strengthen the existing approaches to disease detection in the UK.”