Select committee inquiry
Defra performance in 2013-14
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee will take evidence in connection with Defra’s Annual Report and Accounts 2013–14 (PDF 1.28 MB) . The Committee aims to examine the administration and operation of the Department as well as focusing on topical issues such as CAP implementation, flood risk management and the badger culls.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What the government said
The government responded on 26 March 2015.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response.
The Government responds to each recommendation without accepting or rejecting them in formal terms, explaining its budget figures, noting some Committee views and declining to publish a detailed bovine TB cattle vaccine timetable.
- On the 2013–14 underspend, Defra says the £80 million and £50 million figures are reconciled because £30 million of the £80 million "was used for flood defence funding in 2013–14"; it says no budgets were cut for the £27 million underspend.
- On Spending Review protection for Defra's budget, the Government says the Committee's views are "noted" and that this "will be a matter for the Government to determine" in the next Parliament.
- On marine conservation zones, Defra is consulting on a further 23 sites and says the second tranche "will be designated within one year", followed by a third tranche.
- On a bovine TB cattle vaccine, Defra is "committed to pursuing options to license a cattle vaccine by 2023, or sooner if possible", but says it is "difficult to publish a detailed timetable".
Read the government's response ↗ Read the report ↗ Report an error
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 2 September 2014 to its close on 1 April 2015.
- Oral evidence 2 sessions
- Report 10 Feb 2015
- Government response 26 Mar 2015
- Correspondence 26 Mar 2015
What it recommended 6 recommendations · 15 conclusions
1It is unclear how the £80 million underspend in 2013–14 set out in Defra’s written...
Concluded (the committee's words)
It is unclear how the £80 million underspend in 2013–14 set out in Defra’s written evidence corresponds to the £50 million underspend set out in Defra’s Annual Report and Accounts for the same period. It is also unclear what the distinction is between “underspend within the disallowance ringfence” and “disallowance funding not utilised”: in total these two disallowance figures are worth £53 million which does not agree with the disallowance underspend of £30 million set out in the Annual Report and Accounts. Lastly, Defra’s written evidence refers to £50 million being transferred from 2013–14 to 2014–15 with Treasury approval, whereas the Annual Report and Accounts states that £20 million was transferred with Treasury approval.
2The Department must be more transparent about where emergency money such as the winter floods...
Concluded (the committee's words)
The Department must be more transparent about where emergency money such as the winter floods funding is found and what impact this has on the Department’s other priorities and policy delivery. We are not aware of any reason why the Department could not identify which specific budgets were reduced, despite our repeated requests for this information. The Department must provide a clear and detailed explanation addressing each of the discrepancies we have identified with specific reference to the underlying data in the Annual Report and Accounts.
3Given the breadth of policy areas covered by the Department, coupled with the unpredictable nature...
Concluded (the committee's words)
Given the breadth of policy areas covered by the Department, coupled with the unpredictable nature of emergency events such as flooding and animal and plant health disease, it is important that a strong case is made to protect Defra’s budget at the next Spending Review.
4It is frustrating that our concerns about the lack of clarity surrounding pending budget reductions...
Recommended (the committee's words)
It is frustrating that our concerns about the lack of clarity surrounding pending budget reductions have not been addressed. We reiterate our previous recommendation that the Secretary of State must be clearer about where budget cuts will fall and what impact this will have on Defra’s policy delivery. We understand that the Secretary of State makes decisions based on outcomes in line with Defra’s priorities, but the priorities in themselves do not provide a clear guide as to where the axe will fall. Defra has not provided the clarity or detail needed to scrutinise the Department’s planned expenditure or policy delivery.
5With the main reform provisions of the new Common Agricultural Policy scheme coming into play...
Concluded (the committee's words)
With the main reform provisions of the new Common Agricultural Policy scheme coming into play in 2015, Defra, the Rural Payments Agency and farmers are having to adjust to a complex set of new rules. It is therefore vital that Defra and its agencies ensure that lessons learnt from problems with payments under the previous CAP schemes are taken forward effectively so as to minimise disallowance risks in future. We welcome the CAP Delivery Programme put in place by Defra and the Rural Payments Agency to prepare for the new rules applying from 2015 but it is essential that the Department closely monitors performance and that early action is taken to rectify any problems.
6The Secretary of State and the Permanent Secretary must make it a priority to review...
Concluded (the committee's words)
The Secretary of State and the Permanent Secretary must make it a priority to review progress and ensure that effective mechanisms, including IT systems, are in place to provide timely, accurate CAP payments to farmers.
7In our Report on Rural broadband and digital-only services, we gave the Rural Payments Agency...
Concluded (the committee's words)
In our Report on Rural broadband and digital-only services, we gave the Rural Payments Agency credit for taking a number of important steps to ensure that those with poor broadband speeds can access its new CAP application software but, given the difficulties experienced with previous CAP schemes, and in particular given the variable state of broadband access in rural areas, we reserved judgment on the effectiveness of its preparations until they had been tested in action. We also recommended that the RPA had a contingency plan in place in case the new CAP application system proved difficult for farmers with limited broadband capability to use and to enable it to respond to the software not functioning at the level required.
8The Department continues to lag behind the Civil Service average and must increase its efforts...
Concluded (the committee's words)
The Department continues to lag behind the Civil Service average and must increase its efforts to avoid another repeat of poor staff survey results.
9We welcome the initiatives introduced by the Department to address low staff satisfaction levels but...
Concluded (the committee's words)
We welcome the initiatives introduced by the Department to address low staff satisfaction levels but we agree with the Permanent Secretary that there is more work to be done to improve the levels of staff engagement. This is not the first year that Defra’s staff survey results have been disappointing and, in addition to taking responsibility, senior managers need to commit to taking action to address these results.
10When new initiatives are introduced (for example the ‘5-A-Year’ campaign) they must be promoted and...
Concluded (the committee's words)
When new initiatives are introduced (for example the ‘5-A-Year’ campaign) they must be promoted and monitored to ensure that positive results are being achieved. We invite the Department to set out in its response to this Report the specific actions it is taking to address low levels of engagement in leadership and managing change and to keep us updated with the results of its monitoring of such initiatives.
11We commend Defra’s diligence in updating farmers on the new CAP rules, particularly given the...
Concluded (the committee's words)
We commend Defra’s diligence in updating farmers on the new CAP rules, particularly given the challenge of responding to EU developments at short notice. We also welcome the Secretary of State’s engagement at an early stage with the new EU Commissioner for agriculture and rural development, demonstrating her commitment to tackling the complexity of the new scheme.
12We urge Defra to continue to press the EU through all available channels to simplify...
Recommended (the committee's words)
We urge Defra to continue to press the EU through all available channels to simplify the CAP and to amend or remove perverse rules such as the three-crop rule. The Secretary of State must develop effective alliances with the other Member States which share the UK’s concerns on these issues in order to achieve reform.
13We support the principle that the private sector should help to fund flood defence schemes...
Concluded (the committee's words)
We support the principle that the private sector should help to fund flood defence schemes but we are concerned that the £600 million target for external contributions to capital funding over the next six years will be difficult to meet given the relatively Defra performance in 2013–14 21 small amounts of private sector funding that have been secured to date.
14We invite Defra to demonstrate how the Partnership Funding model for flood defences will deliver...
Concluded (the committee's words)
We invite Defra to demonstrate how the Partnership Funding model for flood defences will deliver much greater private sector funding in the future and to explain the impact on the six-year capital investment programme if the £600 million external contributions and 10 per cent efficiency savings targets are not achieved.
15In line with our previous recommendation in our Report on Winter Floods 2013–14, we strongly...
Concluded (the committee's words)
In line with our previous recommendation in our Report on Winter Floods 2013–14, we strongly recommend that the Government assess the possibility of a transition to a total expenditure classification for flood and coastal risk management funding to allow funding to be targeted according to identified needs and to ensure the optimal standard of protection is provided by flood defence assets.
16We commend the Department for ensuring that the biodiversity offsetting pilots are fully evaluated, but...
Concluded (the committee's words)
We commend the Department for ensuring that the biodiversity offsetting pilots are fully evaluated, but we are concerned that implementation of the Department’s biodiversity offsetting proposals has been significantly delayed past the end of 2013. This suggests that implementation of the proposals may no longer be a priority for Defra before the General Election in May.
17We ask Defra to set out a renewed timetable for its proposals on biodiversity offsetting...
Recommended (the committee's words)
We ask Defra to set out a renewed timetable for its proposals on biodiversity offsetting to provide certainty for local communities, landowners, planning authorities and developers. We recommend that the Secretary of State announce when a clear, evidence-based policy decision on biodiversity offsetting will be made.
18Despite the Secretary of State recognising that marine conservation zones are extremely important, we note...
Concluded (the committee's words)
Despite the Secretary of State recognising that marine conservation zones are extremely important, we note that progress towards fulfilling the requirements of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and forming a network of such marine protected areas has been slow since the 127 sites were first recommended to the Government in 2011.
19We recommend that the Department demonstrates its commitment to protecting marine areas by implementing a...
Recommended (the committee's words)
We recommend that the Department demonstrates its commitment to protecting marine areas by implementing a more ambitious programme of designating Marine Conservation Zones. Defra must take responsibility for achieving the goals of the Marine and Coastal Access Act and take a more strategic approach to evidence gathering to ensure progress can be made within a reasonable timeframe.
20We invite Defra to set out why the second year of the badger culling pilots...
Recommended (the committee's words)
We invite Defra to set out why the second year of the badger culling pilots in Gloucestershire failed to meet the licence conditions for the minimum number of badgers removed. We recommend that Defra clarifies whether it intends to continue the culling in Gloucestershire from 2015 onwards and, if so, what changes will be made to ensure its effectiveness in line with the recommendations of the Chief Veterinary Officer. We also urge the Government to continue to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the badger culling pilots.
21Defra should do all it can to condense the indicative timeline set out by the...
Recommended (the committee's words)
Defra should do all it can to condense the indicative timeline set out by the Commission without compromising the collection of robust field data necessary to satisfy the relevant requirements. We urge Defra to publish its own timetable for the development and use of a cattle vaccine to reassure the public that action is being taken to combat bovine TB in this way.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 2
- 26 Nov 2014No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗
- 19 Nov 2014No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗