Hampton Principle

Regulators should provide authorities, accessible advice easily and cheaply.

Regulators' Compliance Code

• To ensure that all legal requirements, along with any changes made, relating to regulatory activities are promptly communicated or otherwise made available to relevant regulated entities.
• To provide general information, advice and guidance in a clear and concise and accessible language, using a range of appropriate formats and media.
• To involve regulated entities in developing both the content and style of the regulatory guidance and assessing the effectiveness of their information by monitoring awareness and understanding of legal requirements.
• To provide targeted and practical advice that meets the needs of regulated entities in a range of formats.
• To distinguish between statutory requirements and advice or guidance aimed when offering compliance advice.
• To provide appropriate means to ensure that regulated entities can reasonably seek and access advice without triggering an enforcement action.
• Any charges for advice services beyond the basic advice and guidance necessary to help ensure compliance should be reasonable and take into account of the needs and circumstances of smaller regulated entities.

Animal Health Approach

Animal Health has a long history of working with the livestock industry to advise and encourage compliance, only resorting to formal enforcement when this approach does not yield results or where breaches are of such significance that formal enforcement is the only appropriate response e.g. in a serious welfare case where unnecessary suffering has been caused either deliberately or through negligence. This approach is backed up by a frequently updated website, specialist literature, mailshots stakeholder and other meetings.

Evidence of changes made to programmes, programmes delivered or ways in which activities are run that reflects the code:

A new Welsh Language Scheme has been developed and published. Advisory documents are regularly updated e.g. ‘Dealing with TB in your Herd’, a ‘Practical Guide to Dairy Hygiene’ and an Egg Quality Guide. A more recent and very successful development has been the email, fax and voicemail alerts for farms, veterinary practices and other stakeholders in a given area when they are affected by disease control restrictions following a suspect or confirmed disease outbreak. If an outbreak of notifiable disease is confirmed in an area, comprehensive information packs are delivered to every holding in the area within 2 days.

Circumstances where the Code’s provisions are either not relevant or are outweighed by other relevant considerations

There are a few requirements in European legislation where unannounced visits are required. This reduces the opportunity to use advice and guidance to encourage compliance.

Future work and long term ambitions that will reflect the code

A continuous review of all Animal Health advice, guidance and communications to ensure that they are fit for purpose. This will be accompanied by working with Defra to develop further the Whole Farm Approach – a Defra initiative to provide a single electronic channel for farmers and other stakeholders to transact with Government.