What efforts has the Food Standards Agency made to reduce the regulatory burden on farmers?
The Agency has: • Engaged with Scottish Government to reduce the total number of farm inspections. This fits with Scottish Government’s objectives under the Scotland’s Environment and Rural Services (SEARS) project. • The Agency has trained and authorised SGRPID officers to carry out primary production inspections, whilst carrying out their cross compliance inspections, therefore reducing additional inspections. • Trained local authority officers are carrying out food and feed primary production inspections at the same time. • A Scottish Primary Production Enforcement Working Group meets throughout the year to discuss the implementation of on-farm food and feed hygiene enforcement. Industry is represented by National Farmers Union Scotland and the Scottish Crofting Federation.
