Shadow DEFRA Minister Dr Neil Hudson MP took the opportunity in Parliament to champion Farm Safety Week, meeting with the Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies), to urgently call for change to keep our farmers safe at their parliamentary event in advance of Farm Safety Week.
Farm Safety Week is an annual week dedicated to championing awareness of the hazards and challenges farmers up and down the country face in the nature of their work and encouraging change to make farms safer places to work. This year marks the 13th annual Farm Safety Week and runs between 21-25 July.
Dr Hudson joined the Farm Safety Foundation at their event in Parliament, championing Farm Safety Week and discussing what more can be done to create the change needed. The Farm Safety Foundation were set up in 2014 explicitly to challenge and change attitudes and behaviours around farm safety and poor mental health in young farmers aged 16-40 across the UK.
Farmers can often face-long term health challenges and sadly even lose their lives as a result of injuries and accidents that take place on farms.
The Shadow DEFRA Minister has spent his parliamentary career working to champion improved health outcomes for rural communities and our dedicated farming industry.
Only in May, Dr Hudson collaborated with the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution to attend a roundtable that discussed the persistent inequalities for rural communities in physical and mental health outcomes. That roundtable discussed shocking statistics, such as the fact farming as an occupation has a twenty-one times higher rate of accidents than average. The physical and mental health impacts of these are often exacerbated by the fact those in rural communities tend to take longer to present themselves for help, which increases preventable deaths.
As part of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee in the previous Parliament, Dr Hudson instigated a landmark report on Rural Mental Health, which highlighted the urgent need to tackle shocks like flooding and animal disease outbreaks, as their negative economic impacts and destruction of livelihoods can create and exacerbate challenges to rural communities’ mental health.
Dr Hudson’s passion for this cause and the evidence of this Inquiry have led Dr Hudson to call for improvement directly at the Despatch Box, calling out the Government for cutting the Farming Resilience Fund earlier this year, launched by the previous Conservative Government to protect rural communities’ mental health amidst these challenges.
He likewise has pressed the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to address shocks by fully funding a redevelopment our biosecurity headquarters, the Animal Plant and Health Agency Headquarters in Weybridge. After Dr Hudson asking seventeen times since July 2024, the Government finally listened to his calls and announced in June that they would provide £1billion for an upgrade.
Following the Farm Safety Foundation event, Dr Hudson commented:
“Our farming sector is dedicated to keeping us all fed and our nation food secure and doing so to the very highest animal welfare standards, but they do so at often great risk to themselves.
I must thank the Farm Safety Foundation for all they continue to do to champion Farm Safety Week, and drive the change that is needed to keep our farming sector a safe one for everyone.
From seeking to address the inequalities in the physical and mental health outcomes of rural communities, to pushing for Government measures that address the shocks that can harm farmers’ mental and physical well-being, I will always be a champion for the sector that does so much for all of us.”
Stephanie Berkeley, Farm Safety Foundation Manager, commented:
"Over the years we have seen the attitudes and behaviours around farm safety changing but the pace of change is slow - too slow for the families of those we have lost in the industry and too slow for the thousands of farmers suffering every day with long-term ill-health or serious injuries as a result of their work.
This year's campaign offers an opportunity for a reset in the way we approach farm safety and risk-taking. Each of us can work on how we work on the farm but we also have a responsibility not to tolerate poor safety behaviours in others.
It's not somebody else's job to drive this change in culture, and we can not rely on luck when going about our daily tasks - luck has a habit of running out!"
You can see more about some of Dr Hudson's work mentioned in this press release at the following links:
Roundtable with the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution: https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/shadow-defra-minister-dr-neil-hudson-mp-joins-rural-health-parliamentary-roundtable
EFRA Select Committee Rural Mental Health report: http://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/veterinary-mp-dr-neil-hudson-instigated-new-efra-committee-report-highlighting-acute-pressures
Dr Hudson challenging the Government on the Farming Resilience Fund: https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/shadow-defra-minister-dr-neil-hudson-mp-stands-rural-mental-health
Dr Hudson's response to Government announcement of £1billion to redevelop the Animal Plant and Health Agency Headquarters: https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/shadow-defra-minister-apha-funding-win-it-time-get-started-without-delay
