Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Paragraph: 96
Past experience has shown the potential for failures in digital delivery to do real damage...
Conclusion
Past experience has shown the potential for failures in digital delivery to do real damage to farmers’ trust in Government. We recognise that Defra has decided to initially use a simplified version of existing systems rather than attempting to build something from scratch. However, the Government’s plans for ELM are far more ambitious than previous schemes, and concerns have previously been raised that it will find itself playing catch-up if it realises too late that its systems are not suitable. This must not be allowed to happen. Defra should explain in its response its approach to ensuring that it will have suitable and scalable IT systems in place to deliver the full ELM scheme from 2024.
Paragraph Reference:
96
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We are confident in our IT delivery for the environmental land management schemes – we have learned the lessons of the past, and we are following best practice guidance on service design and delivery. The latest Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) review gave an Amber rating overall with improving confidence in deliverability. We are acting on the recommendations and working closely with the IPA and the Central Digital and Data Office to embed learnings from similar programmes across government. The programme is taking an iterative and user-centred approach to service design and delivery, which will meet the Government Service Standard. This means that services will be introduced gradually and regularly tested with the farming community to ensure that the service meets their needs. Taking an iterative approach reduces risk because services are introduced at a small scale and extensively tested, adjusted to ensure they are robust and work effectively, and then rolled out more safely at a larger scale once the testing has taken place. To ensure the IT systems are suitable, robust and meet the needs of external and internal users we have developed a shared team approach with colleagues working closely together with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), Digital, Data & Technology Services and the programme. This is a genuinely joint team effort, making the service work end to end, for internal and external users. The service will be built on technology that will enable the development of a quality end-to-end (internal and external) user experience with the simplicity and efficiency of operations that our customers expect in line with the government service standard. However, we have learnt the lessons from the past and where it is prudent and safer to do so, we will use existing systems until we are fully confident that new technology is suitable, scalable and safe.