Evaluation of the Cross Compliance Programme
In October 2008 Defra commissioned CCRI, ADAS and Central Science Laboratory (CSL), with ADAS as lead partner, to evaluate the cross-compliance programme. Cross Compliance comprises a number of standards relating to environment, public health and animal health and welfare that farmers have to comply with in order to claim the Single Payment and other direct payments. The evaluation was tasked with answering the following questions:
How effective is cross compliance in England in meeting its objectives?
What is the nature and magnitude of the costs imposed on farmers and any others in meeting cross compliance conditions?
Does the policy represent good value for money?
Are there any unintended consequences?
Has there been a change in farmer behaviour in response to the introduction of cross compliance?
There were three key stages to the work; a review of secondary evidence, a collection of primary evidence and an evaluation of effectiveness and value for money. The research evidence and monitoring data highlighted generally high levels of compliance but some considerable variation across the measures. The full research results are available in the final project report which is available on the Defra website. The CCRI input was led by Jane Mills, with help from Janet Dwyer, Peter Gaskell and Ian Condliffe.
