THE National Farmers Union and National Sheep Association have held an urgent meeting with representatives from Defra and the Rural Payments Agency to clarify member concerns over the inspection and penalty process for sheep movement reporting and recording.

The NFU says many livestock farmers have been reporting breaches identified at inspection caused by third party reporting errors into the Animal Reporting & Movement Service (ARAMS) system.

A joint NFU and NSA statement said: "We successfully got an agreement from Defra and the RPA that farmers are not responsible for third party errors, and that they can help themselves by registering with ARAMS and cross referencing movements listed with on farm records.

"There is no need to electronically report movements to gain access to this function.

“Defra also re-stated their commitment to rolling out the recommendations of the MacDonald review which will simplify the system of movements reporting allowing the farmer to associate land within ten miles of the main holding from July 1, 2016, and exploring the options to agree a level of tolerance to avoid unfair penalties being applied.

“Collectively, the NFU and NSA recommend that farmers should take care to ensure information in their movements documents and holdings register match, and that information sent on to ARAMS on their behalf is checked for accuracy.”

The meeting was attended by the NFU's Charles Sercombe, John Royle and Tom Fullick, along with Phil Stocker and Bryan Griffiths from the NSA.