Farmers Urged to Keep on Top of Paperwork or Risk Heavy Fines

A leading lawyer is urging farmers and any business owner trading in animals to keep up to date with the increasing burden of paperwork or risk losing their livelihoods.

Solicitor David Kirwan, head of the agricultural unit at North West law firm Kirwans, has seen a rise in RSPCA and trading standards prosecutions for administration offences.

Mr Kirwan said: “Farming administration has grown so much that it is now a business in itself. Unfortunately the risks are so high that farmers and animal breeders cannot afford to ignore their responsibilities.”

“Huge fines can easily result from what may appear as relatively minor breaches of rules. In the long term we need to re-evaluate with a view to bringing back some common sense and ending what some farmers see as persecution. Over the short term, however, farmers must dedicate time to conforming with obligations.”

“I have sympathy for farmers because for thousands of years their forefathers have farmed animals – they are not cruel to them because if they are cruel the animals will not grow. I don’t think the British people, the farmers, the pet lovers, have changed so why has the administration changed so significantly?”

“Any reasonable person will accept that administration is an essential part of any business but it should not be so overwhelming that it threatens the business.”

“Modern day farmers face tough economic conditions and I am convinced that for some enterprises it is administrative pressures that are the difference between survival and failure.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has acknowledged the growing burden on farmers and livestock keepers by bringing ten administrative services online under one website to slash time spent on paperwork.

Farmers are regularly caught out and handed costly fines by the courts. Last week a farmer who breached rules designed to stop the spread of cattle diseases was fined £16,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 costs, three years after being fined £14,000 with £6,000 costs for a similar offence.