Corporate report

RPA Regulators' Code

Published 8 July 2016

1. Executive summary

The Regulators’ Code came into statutory effect on 6 April 2014 under the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, replacing the Regulators’ Compliance Code. It provides a clear, flexible and principle-based framework for how regulators should engage with those they regulate and the information regulators should provide.

Businesses should be able to understand what they need to do to meet the rules, where they can get help and how they can provide feedback to the regulators.

This guidance shows how the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) meets the 6 standards of the code to make sure we’re open and fair with those we regulate.

2. Supporting business growth

Under the new requirements of the extended Business Impact Target, (BIT) any Regulator planning a change to their operational policies, processes or practices which may have a significant financial increase or decrease on businesses must assess and measure the impact of that change on the business. The extension of the scheme to all national Regulators gives businesses a stronger voice when making policies and practices.

As new, or changes to, EU regulations are exempt from the BIT requirements RPA may not carry out these assessments. However, when non EU regulatory changes do require implementation, RPA will share and discuss assessments with trade associations and other business representatives before carrying out proposed changes.

The BIT won’t apply to individual enforcement decisions taken by RPA.

This measure is part of the Government’s drive to make sure the enforcement of regulation places minimum burdens on industry while giving protection and a level playing field on which companies and customers can compete fairly. It also allows RPA and Defra to get to know the costs of their activities to businesses.

The nature of RPA’s engagement with businesses may vary, depending on the size and type of area affected by the change – and the change itself. Defra and RPA have constructive working relationships with many business sector trade bodies through our customer engagement activities, for example, monthly meetings with technical and environmental stakeholders. We will also use Defra on line consultation tools for maximum engagement when we need to engage with our businesses to assess the impact of non-EU legislative changes.

RPA works closely with other environmental regulators, such as the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Natural England, Forestry Commission and the Environment Agency, to make sure that the approach to BIT and impact assessments undertaken are consistent.

The impact assessment steps include:

• assessing the economic impact of a change
• agreeing with business the nature of the impact
• publishing the outcome.

Draft and final Impact Assessments will be available to view on GOV.UK.

The BIT has also been extended to cover wider reforms to further simplify the enforcement of regulation which include:

• a ‘growth duty’ – a statutory requirement for Regulators to consider and report on how their activities affect growth of business
• a Small Business Appeals Champion, selected by the Secretary of State, who will analyse the RPA’s Complaints and Appeals process for effectiveness.

2.1 RPA’s Regulatory Strategy

How RPA is approaching the Government regulatory reform agenda.

In our role as an agency that enforces EU regulations, we are working as efficiently and effectively as possible to reduce the administrative burdens placed upon our customers by:

• taking into account the experience of our customers and using their feedback to improve our systems and processes where we can;
• minimising the inspection burden through risk selection;
• working closely with the Department and other European Paying Agencies to seek simplification to European Regulations.

Farm Visits Programme

We are working on combining inspections where possible and through participation in the Farm Visits programme, will deliver:

• A reduction in farm visits conducted by government by 20,000 per annum by the end of this parliament.
• An improved customer journey for farmers
• A reduction to the regulatory burden on compliant farmers.
• Increased efficiencies across Defra field operations

We have already delivered:

• Single contact number: on 30 September 2015 the new single helpline for APHA and RPA went live; through the Defra Rural Services helpline customers can now access services using one single contact centre number.
• Farm Landing Page: on 30 September 2015 the new farmers’ ‘landing’ page was launched; this will make it easier for farmers to access services and find information.

The Farm Visits programme is an example of the One Defra Strategy which is encapsulated in the Defra Single Departmental Plan.

We believe that our customers should be treated with fairness and respect when we have to implement regulation. We have guidance and processes in place to make sure we act in a balanced, fair and accountable way, following the recommendations of the Farming Regulations Task Force and Better Regulation principles under the Regulators Code.

The following explain our approach to regulation:

• RPA Business Plan 2014/15
• RPA Annual Report and Accounts for 2014/15
• Farm inspections - Publications - GOV.UK

3. Engagement

RPA uses simple and straightforward ways to engage with the sectors we regulate and to gather their views. We have systems for:

• regular meetings of External Stakeholder Groups; updating industry representatives on key issues and consulting them on draft guidance and information campaigns.
• giving those who aren’t compliant guidance on what they need to do to meet the rules and signposting them to relevant publications on GOV.UK
• a formal Complaints and Appeals procedure
• providing our customers with ways to give us inspection feedback; a pilot using a new electronic feedback process has been running in one inspectorate region and a phased roll out is being planned for all inspectorate regions later in the year.

4. Risk assessment

The RPA bases our regulatory activities primarily on risk. We have a risk assessment framework based on the EU’s over-arching regulatory framework, which is reviewed regularly to update our decision making processes and target our activities.

Inspection selection is undertaken using a combination of random selection and risk-based targeting. This uses our customer and claim data and previous inspection results to select the number of inspections needed to meet the regulatory provisions. We also complete targeted inspections based on intelligence. Referrals of potential non-compliances from members of the public and other regulators are all assessed and ranked in order to use our limited resources effectively.

Our focus is on timely and appropriate enforcement that meets the requirements of the Regulators code, the Defra Enforcement Policy Statement as well as our EU regulatory requirements. Effective enforcement comes from a common format for the collection, exchange and analysis of intelligence. Using the principles of proportionality, consistency, transparency and targeting we seek to resolve any non-compliance or complaint using the appropriate tools to achieve the most effective enforcement option.

5. Sharing compliance and risk information

RPA shares information about compliance and risk.

Requests for information held by RPA are dealt with on a case by case basis in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We may share information with other government departments and agencies. Our Personal information charter explains how we will treat your personal information.

RPA currently have data sharing agreements with a number of other government departments, Devolved Paying Agencies, European Commission and departments within other Member States. These are managed by the information asset owner from the relevant directorate and details of each share are recorded on the RPA’s information asset register, which is updated twice a year

At all times, we meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 and any personal information about those we regulate meets that legislation.

Those we regulate can have a copy of the information that we hold about them and they have the right to correct inaccurate information that we hold.

Over the next five years the Defra Farm Visits Programme will introduce a new joined-up, efficient and responsive farm inspection service.

This will include:

• combining inspections wherever possible
• development of more training opportunities to improve skills for both operational and emergency response duties across Defra
• setting up a dedicated Co-ordination Unit to allocate work
• introduction of new technologies, such as remote sensing and mobile devices, to help with inspections

Risk assessments based on shared information from across the Defra group will allow inspections to become much more risk-based and focused on non-compliant farmers

6. Sharing information, advice and guidance

RPA make sure clear information, guidance and advice is available to help those they regulate to comply. We do this through our inspectors, customer service centre and GOV.UK.

We regularly review our information, to make sure it’s clear, accessible and written in plain language. We also try to resolve areas where conflicting advice is provided by different regulators. All of our guidance outlines the legal requirements that our businesses are expected to follow.

7. Transparency

RPA make sure our approach to our regulatory activities is transparent and we make sure those we regulate know what to expect from us. We publish our service standards in our business plan. This includes clear information on:

• how we communicate with the regulated community
• our approach to providing information, advice and guidance
• our approach to checks on compliance
• our complaints and feedback procedures including how you can appeal

All of our services and inspections are free of charge. In addition to the electronic feedback on our inspections process set out in section 3;

• our plan is to give all customers who have been inspected the opportunity to anonymously provide feedback via email (if they have an email address) the feedback gathers information on all elements of the inspection (e.g. satisfaction with the inspection process and the inspector) and customers are also offered the option of follow-up contact with RPA.

8. Performance

RPA publishes annual reports on GOV.UK which outlines our progress against our service standards and updates on our activities. We undertake customer service feedback on a quarterly basis. Information is collected anonymously in person by inspectors during field visits and by telephone and email by our customer service team.