Farm membership of voluntary welfare schemes results in better compliance with animal welfare legislation in Great Britain

The Action Plan of the European Commission 2006 – 2010 proposed a move towards more private and less state regulation of animal welfare and Great British governments made a commitment to reduce the burden of inspection of farms by targeting high-risk enterprises. In previous research in GB, farmers in private voluntary regulated schemes were more compliant with GB legislation and code at statutory welfare inspections made by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) than farmers not in such schemes. The current study investigated whether membership of other private voluntary regulators and national data sources were associated with greater compliance with welfare at APHA inspections and whether the previous association between greater compliance and membership of private schemes persiste