The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has set out the steps it will take to deliver recommendations outlined in the independent review into farm assurance led by Dr David Llewellyn.
Following the review, commissioned by the UK farming unions and AHDB, the NFU is laying out its plans to deliver on the recommendations.
In a statement, the NFU has said that of the review’s 56 recommendations, there are 13 that require its direct involvement, either in a leading or supporting role, and that it will be working with other relevant stakeholders to “drive much-needed change and better delivery for the whole UK food supply chain and its customers”.
“The review’s recommendations reflect the key concerns of our members and the NFU is committed to playing its role in delivering these.”
NFU president Tom Bradshaw commented: “It’s clear that change is needed to ensure farm assurance schemes are fit for a modern farming environment.
“The review’s recommendations reflect the key concerns of our members and the NFU is committed to playing its role in delivering these so that farmers and growers, the wider food supply chain, and our customers all see the benefit.
“Work is already underway on multiple aspects of the recommendations but there is a lot of work to do, and change will not happen overnight. That’s why it’s important that progress is carefully monitored and reported on, something the NFU is glad to support through funding.”
Key recommendations
The NFU lists some of the key areas where it will take a leadership role, which include:
- Clarifying the purpose and scope of farm assurance: it will seek to give clear direction for schemes now and in the future, while recognising and delivering autonomy and value for individual farming sectors.
- Data ownership: it will work closely with AHDB to navigate the challenges of data ownership, ensuring that data collection benefits scheme members and adopting simple methods of data collection that avoid duplication and ensure that the value of data is recognised.
- Developing and implementing environmental standards: it says that it must make sure that any environmental standards have a clear purpose and value, that communications are effective, and that farmers and growers are involved in development from the start.
- Farm assurance for combinable crops: the NFU’s national crops board will be supporting this work with a particular focus on delivering transparency around imported grains and are calling for substantive change to current assurance.
- Ownership of Red Tractor: as part of the Red Tractor Ownership Body, it is committed to working with the Red Tractor Board and other owners to deliver the best possible balance of active leadership alongside the Board’s operational delivery and will ensure this process happens transparently.
- A formal assessment of changes to Red Tractor: this will be reviewed and the NFU will support this work by funding (alongside AHDB and the other UK farming unions) the work of lead commissioner Dr David Llewellyn and Promar to independently monitor progress against the FAR’s recommendations.
Earlier this week, Dr Llewellyn released an update to the UK Farm Assurance Review, which is now in the monitoring and reporting stage. In a statement, he said: “During the course of the next few weeks a series of meetings will be held with the bodies identified in the report to brief them about the monitoring and reporting stage and to better understand how they intend to respond to the Review over the coming months, in accordance with the timescales set out in the report’s set of recommendations. We also want to understand where these organisations already believe they are compliant with relevant recommendations and can provide evidence to this effect, or if they believe there are particular obstacles to action being taken and how they will then develop appropriate solutions.
“Progress reports will be published in the early autumn this year and the early spring of 2026. A ‘comply or explain’ approach will be taken, so that information about the actions taken, or not yet taken, by the identified organisations will be publicly available.”
