Corporate report

APHA: business impact target assessments, 2015 to 2017

Updated 15 December 2022

The business impact target (BIT) is a cross-government target for the reduction of regulation on business. Find out more about the BIT.

Under the BIT, APHA assesses the financial impacts on business of qualifying regulatory provisions (QRPs). QRPs are changes to regulatory practices that are described in a written ministerial statement. We assess the impacts of these changes through BIT assessments.

We submit BIT assessments for QRPs to the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) for validation.

Non-qualifying regulatory provisions (NQRPs) are excluded from the BIT as set out in a written ministerial statement. We submit NQRPs summaries to the RPC for certification.

Read about the scope of QRPs and NQRPs in the written ministerial statement.

Reporting period: 8 May 2015 to 26 May 2017.

1. Qualifying regulatory provisions

The RPC has validated and scored the BIT assessments listed in the table below:

Qualifying regulatory provision	RPC reference number	RPC score
The combining of sheep and goat (SAG) identification inspections with disease surveillance inspections for brucellosis. The inspections had been conducted separately by different Defra agencies.	RPC-3940(1)-DEFRA-APHA	Validated - Zero

2. Non-qualifying regulatory provisions

The RPC has validated and confirmed APHA’s NQRPs summary as listed in the table below:

Excluded category	Summary of measures
EU and International	There have been measures implemented relating to EU legislation that have not changed the regulatory requirements but allowed greater use of scientific interpretation of risks. Introduction of new Temporary Land Use Registration. New rules have been introduced to adhere to EU legislation that have replaced species specific rules and processes. Registration that was previously verbal now requires submission of a signed application form containing details of all the land to be used by a farm business. This will affect livestock keepers who use land on a temporary basis in England and approx. 3000 applications have been processed in first 6 months.
Economic regulation	None
Price control	Whilst APHA are currently reviewing a number of its statutory charges, no amendments have been made in this period.
Civil emergencies	Avian Influenza - HPAI England and Wales. On 16 December 2016, Defra confirmed High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) at a farm in Lincolnshire. The farm was declared an Infected Premises (IP) and all poultry were humanely culled, the carcasses disposed in a bio-secure manner and the premises underwent preliminary cleansing and disinfection. Any movements of poultry to and from the premises were prohibited. Upon confirmation of disease, a 3Km Protection Zone (PZ) and 10Km Surveillance Zone (SZ) were put in place. Within the zones there were restrictions on movements of poultry, meat, eggs etc. and a ban on bird gatherings or the release of wild birds. Following this initial case there were a further 9 infected premises involving the same strain and 2 direct contacts, in different locations in England and 1 in Wales. The same operational activity, restrictions and zones were applied. Defra produced a UK wide monitoring system and campaign necessitating that producers and backyard flock keepers had to keep all poultry indoors or at least covered as a preventative measure to stop the spread of disease. This system came into place in January 2017 and ended in April 2017. Derogation was permitted with regards to the marketing of free range eggs from housed birds for 12 weeks and after that period producers were required to specify that eggs were from barn production. APHA have also dealt with an incident involving Asian hornets in 2016 which pose a serious threat to UK native bee colonies and also sweet chestnut blight in 2017. Working with the Environment Agency, we jointly produced guidance on “Animal disease outbreak: prevent pollution from cleaning and disinfection”, which was published in July 2016. This was to inform how to clean and disinfect after an animal disease outbreak (for example, foot and mouth, salmonella) and store and dispose of the wash water.
Fines and penalties	APHA use administrative and cross compliance penalties in some work areas to improve the level of compliance with disease control legislation and in support of compliant businesses. However, there have been no new measures introduced or any amendments to existing processes in this period.
Pro-competition	None
Large Infrastructure projects	None
Misuse of drugs / national minimum	None
Systemic financial risk	None
Industry codes	None
Casework	No activities listed in this section represent a change in the burden of regulation placed on business. Licensing, registration and inspection. APHA licences, approves or registers a range of premises, such as markets (and other animal gatherings including shows), animal by-products plants (including rendering facilities, knackers yards, hunt kennels, maggot farms), quarantine centres, nurseries and other plant production sites, designated inspection points and egg producers. We licence movements of animals, the export of animals, animal by-products, plants and plant products, the import of animals, plants and bees and trade in bovine and porcine semen and embryos. APHA issues authorisations to hauliers for the transport of animals. We licence trade in endangered species and register certain birds kept in captivity. These licensing activities are supported by risk-based inspection regimes, often in partnership with local authorities and are designed to ensure ongoing compliance with the conditions of approval for the premises and activities concerned. We inspect farms and other holdings in response to reports about disease risk or conditions of animal welfare and to check compliance with welfare standards for the purposes of the single farm payment scheme. APHA inspects zoos, museums and other establishments that hold collections of endangered species. Surveillance and testing: APHA undertakes surveillance to detect the presence or spread of animal diseases, for example bovine tuberculosis and salmonella, through testing samples taken on farm, at abattoirs, markets and at animal by-products plants. APHA performs surveillance to detect plant and bee pests and diseases to measure their spread. This is achieved through inspection and sampling on nurseries, in public spaces and in the natural environment. We also take samples as part of our activities to regulate the trade in endangered species, for example to establish the species or to verify that an animal has been captive bred. The majority of animal health and welfare legislation that APHA regulates is enforced by the local authorities who are the named statutory enforcers and prosecuting authority. APHA referred 857 cases to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) for consideration of imposing cross compliance penalties for those farmers who failed to TB test on time within their testing window. Severity of the penalty was dependant on the number of days overdue the test was when it was completed. There were 322 cases for Wales. APHA issued 1200 welfare Improvement Notices served following welfare inspection visits on farm and at markets. Egg Marketing and Salmonella Controls: 11 Penalty Notices and 11 warning letters issued. Defra Investigation Service (DIS) referrals – May to May: To date from May 2016; there have been 12 cases referred to DIS.
Education, communications and promotion	APHA have showcased 40 events in this qualifying period (May 2016 to May 2017).
Activity related to policy development	None
Changes to management of regulator	APHA have undertaken a project, Organisational Reform, to design a new operational structure to implement and embed a sustainable, effective and integrated field service and specialised administration functions. This will improve APHA’s resilience capability whilst also delivering increased consistency and efficiency by reducing operating costs across all animal and plant health matters; including examining lowest unit cost operating model and estates savings potential. We are part of Defra’s programmes to change the way we work together in future; includes Estate rationalisation, creation of corporate centres for HR, IT, finance and communications to create a simpler and better service for customers, with less duplication and improved performance. 2016 / 2017 example - Jabber: The implementation of a pan-Defra Unified (Voice over IT) communications service to replace APHA’s current fixed line telephony service, Instant Messaging, audio and web conferencing.