Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Abstract
According to Swedish legislation, a cattle farmer who owns more than 20 cattle and wishes to build, rebuild or add to already existing housing facilities will need to apply for an approval from the Swedish authority County administrative board (CAB) before the building can commence. Assuming that the application is entirely complete and will not require additional information the CAB has eight weeks to consider whether to approve the application or not. Until the application has been approved by the CAB the farmer cannot start building the housing facilities. The main purpose of this application is to ensure that the Swedish animal welfare legislation is enforced. An application that is not in agreement with this legislation will either be rejected or demands will be set in order for the application to be approved.
The following study investigates in what way the need for additional information concerning the application for the approval of Swedish cattle housing facilities affects the time spent by the CAB to consider the case. It also investigates the context of this additional information. Furthermore, it is suggested in what way the application form labelled D173B can be improved.
The study showed that of the 77 investigated applications additional information had been requested in 83 percent of the cases. The average application needed additional information 1.5 times and at most 6 times in total. The most commonly requested additional information was related to part D of the letter of application labelled D173B which refers to enclosed attachments such as plans. Above all, measurements were lacking in the attachments and secondly stable fittings. It took a median of 3 days counting from when the case was complete for the CAB to approve an application. Only two cases were not approved in time. Lastly, it took 18 days longer for the CAB to approve applications which required additional information than those that required none.
In conclusion, the approval of Swedish cattle housing facilities can play an important role in ensuring that the basic welfare requirements for cattle are met. However, the process of approval could benefit from reducing the amount of required additional information and this could probably be accomplished by simplifying the letter of application labelled D173B as well as making the way the CAB communicate with the applicant more effective.