The long-awaited UK Farm Assurance Review was published on 20 January 2025, examining farm-to-fork assurance schemes across the UK.
Widely welcomed by the agricultural sector, the review calls for a ‘reset’ to enable farm assurance schemes to better deliver for the UK food supply chain and customers.
In January 2024, the NFU and AHDB announced plans for a comprehensive review of farm-to-fork assurance schemes to assess how they are functioning for farmers and supply chains, and if they are fit for a modern farming environment. An independent commission was appointed to undertake the review in March 2024, with the review published in January 2025.
Farm assurance schemes are voluntary schemes that set out production standards covering food safety, animal welfare, and environmental protection. The schemes are essential for ensuring that agricultural products are produced in a sustainable, ethical and legally compliant way.
Farm assurance schemes: recommendations
The UK Farm Assurance Review makes nine strategic recommendations to streamline the current farm assurance system. These include reducing on-farm audits, embracing technology to modernise the system, and giving farmers a larger role in developing the standards.
It also suggests creating a new industry-led initiative to set environmental goals for farm assurance and greater collaboration between assurance schemes across the UK.
In addition, the report emphasises the need for farm assurance to better support farmers, ensuring they are fairly compensated for meeting high standards and following complex regulations. Moreover, farm assurance schemes must better position the UK farming industry in world food markets and in competition with imported food, according to the review.
Responding to the review’s findings, Nicky Beach, senior associate in the Agriculture and Estates team at Lodders, says:
“In principle, farm assurance schemes can provide benefits for the farmer/producer and for the public by ensuring that British food is produced to high standards. However, it is important that the government ensures imported produce and food products meet the same standards. Without this, British farmers and growers will be at a financial disadvantage and the public will have no guarantee that imported produce and food products are produced to the same standards as British food.
“Sustainability means different things to different people but in the context of British food production, it is twofold: farming and growing practices must be sustainable in terms of their environmental impact, and the farmer/grower businesses must be financially sustainable. Whether it is the farm assurance schemes that impose sustainability criteria, legislation or a combination of both, farmers and growers need support from the supply chain and government, principally financial, to enable them to comply with the ever-increasing sustainability requirements.”
Experts in agricultural law
Lodders’ team of agriculture and rural solicitors is one of the largest in the Midlands and South West and, most importantly, understands how the countryside works. We have strong ties with the agricultural community, are members of the Agricultural Law Association, and work closely with the Country Land and Business Association. This enables us to keep our clients informed on new legislation and policy, as the sector continues to experience rapid change.
Contact usAbout Nicky
Nicky Beach is a senior associate in Lodders’ Agriculture team. She deals with a wide range of property-related agricultural matters, from sales and purchases of farms and land, to re-financing, easements, tenancies, and partnerships. As part of a farming family, Nicky has close connections with the agricultural community and is a member of both the Agricultural Law Association and the CLA.
