Stricter penalties for missed or late TB tests
DEFRA has announced that from 1st January 2014 farmers will start to receive significant financial penalties if they are found to be late on their regular interval TB tests. The announcement comes on the back of a new agreement between the Animal Health & Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), where AHVLA will provide the RPA with details of all farmers who have not booked TB tests to be completed before their scheduled due date. Those who are late with their tests, ‘even by one day’, will be deemed to have been in breach of existing Cross Compliance rules and face financial penalties on a sliding scale relating to the length of time the test was overdue before being completed. This deduction will be a percentage reduction to the offending businesses SFP payment, or Basic Payment under the new CAP. DEFRA Secretary Owen Patterson described these new measures as a means of addressing the “long-standing weaknesses” in England’s TB controls and that it is “unacceptable” for farmers to be late on their tests.
DEFRA is also currently consulting on changing a number of TB testing rules, including:
- Ending the pre-movement test exemption for farmers moving cattle on and off common land. This proposal, if agreed, will come into place by the end of April 2014.
- No longer allowing for TB restrictions to be lifted on any part of a restricted holding. This would mean that a farm could only be either clear or under a full TB restriction, there would be no ‘middle ground’. Should this be agreed the current allowances would be phased out, aiming for part TB free status to be abolished by September 2014.
- Wild and untestable cattle will be able to be culled ‘in exceptional cases as a last resort’.
- To make information on the location of TB restricted herds available, allowing neighbouring farmers to be more aware of the current levels of TB in their locallity.
Fact sheets
Due to client demand and these announcements Townsend Chartered Surveyors have produced a number of flow charts that break down both the current TB testing regime (Fact Sheet 2) and the protocol that must be taken before moving cattle (Fact Sheet 3).
If you would like to receive hard copies of these publications or wish to register your interest for future Fact sheets such as these please do not hesitate to contact us.
Farm Facts 2014
For a copy of our third annual Farm Facts to be published in the New Year please contact us to confirm if you would like a hard or digital copy. Copies will also be available to download from our website.