House of Commons - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Fifteenth Report

4 Managing Defra

9. The formation of Defra after the 2001 general election resulted from an "unplanned merger" of several parts of Government,[12] principally the former MAFF and part of the Department of the Environment.[13] One of our consistent concerns has been to monitor the progress of the Department towards becoming a single, integrated organisation.[14] It was a matter we again raised with the permanent secretary when he gave evidence.

10. Sir Brian commented at length on progress made, telling us that "we are doing pretty well considering the circumstances of the creation of the Department … three years on, I really do think we have come a long way".[15] He said that more and more work in the Department was "done on a cross-functional basis crossing the silo organisational boundaries on a programme and project management basis".[16] Examples given were of the sustainable farming and food strategy and work on diffuse water pollution. Another illustration of change was movements amongst staff between the parts of the organisation: at management board level, Sir Brian was the only survivor from the time the Department was set up; at senior civil service level more than half of staff had been appointed to their posts since 2001; and 15 out of 27 directors were new appointments. Sir Brian told us that "there is quite a lot of deliberate churn to try and freshen things up".[17]

11. The permanent secretary also said that a measure of the success of his strategy to integrate the Department "is whether the purpose of the organisation is becoming increasingly clear … we have done quite a lot of work on our clarity of purpose".[18] The inquiries we conduct, and our experience of Defra's staff and its stakeholders, lead us to the conclusion that, notwithstanding the efforts made, there is some way to go before the overarching aims, purpose and ethos of Defra are widely understood. We welcome the steps taken by senior managers to encourage integration in the Department. We agree, though, that there is still much further to go; we encourage Defra, in responding to this report, to set out how further integration will be achieved against the backdrop of departmental staff cuts and its response to Lords Haskins' rural delivery review.

12. The Departmental Report cites one mechanism used to encourage integration and greater homogeneity. In 2003 the Department launched a 'one-stop shop' pilot project to provide "practical support, guidance and assistance to policy divisions".[19] The project team helps to appraise policies, and highlights their "potentially conflicting impacts". The report says that the pilot project has "provided a useful challenge function and contributed to greater joining-up in policy making by linking different policy areas across Defra".[20] In evidence the Department told us that the project team had provided advice to 45 policy teams in 28 divisions, screening policies for their "wider social, environmental and economic impacts".[21] The permanent secretary told us that the project had provided a service valued by policy makers.[22]

13. Although the one-stop shop pilot project is not due to report until the autumn, it is apparent that senior managers already view it as a success. We welcome the one-stop shop project as a way to help to ensure that all parts of Defra have regard to the Department's core values and objectives in policy making. We recommend that the project be adopted permanently by Defra: it should serve to encourage integration and coherence in Departmental policies.

Working across Government

14. Much of Defra's work requires the co-operation of other government departments and agencies. The Department itself acknowledges that "to deliver the Department's agenda, it is essential that we work collaboratively and across organisational boundaries",[23] and it says that it is building relationships "of indirect sponsorship, partnership and influence".[24] Thus it is appropriate that the Departmental Report should describe the work Defra does in conjunction with other departments. Last year we criticised the Departmental Report for not including enough such information; this year's report is better. We commend the Department for acting on our recommendation that the Departmental Report should include more information about the delivery of policies across Government. However, we recommend that future reports include clearer descriptions of the lines of accountability when matters are dealt with by a range of departments and agencies. For example, when public service agreement targets are shared between Defra and other government departments it would be sensible if the Departmental Report explained exactly what the contribution of each has been, and what difference it has made for the target to be shared.

15. One section of the Departmental Report is entitled 'Embedding sustainable development across government'. It says that "Defra is working with other departments to integrate sustainable development into decision making, to improve performance of the government estate and to promote understanding of sustainable development across government. There is abundant evidence that this is working".[25] The report cites the adoption of sustainable development strategies by the Departments for Work and Pensions, Education and Skills and Culture, Media and Sport. It also claims some success in dealing with the Treasury.

16. There is, though, evidence that policies promoted by other departments in fact conflict with the aims of Defra. For example, on 4 June 2004 both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor indicated that the increase in petrol duty of 2 pence per litre planned for September would be kept under review, prompting the Minister for Environment and Agri-Environment, Elliot Morley MP, to observe that "we should not lose sight of the object of sustainability and the wise use of finite resources" at the same time as praising the Chancellor's "sensible and pragmatic" decision.[26] On another issue the Environmental Audit Committee recently warned that the aviation white paper:

… actively promotes a huge growth in air travel over the next 30 years. The environmental impact of this—in particular in terms of emissions and the contribution of aviation to global warming—will be massive. The Department for Transport has failed to recognise this adequately or to accept the disparity between its policy on aviation and the major commitments the Government has given to reduce carbon emissions and develop a sustainable consumption strategy.[27]

17. We used these examples to challenge the permanent secretary about how effective Defra has really been in "embedding sustainable development across government". He told us that "there are a number of areas where we feel we have made a significant impact".[28] He cited work following up the world summit on sustainable development, and with the Department of Health "on health inequalities and public work".[29] The permanent secretary also said that "the Treasury has been constructive in using other economic instruments to deal with environmental issues", giving as examples the landfill tax and the emissions trading scheme.[30] Finally, he said that "one of the cross-cutting themes" of the forthcoming spending review "should be and is sustainable development", and he looked forward to "seeing how that is reflected in the end game".[31]

18. Notwithstanding these comments, we remain concerned that Defra does not yet have sufficient 'clout' to be taken seriously by other government departments in framing their key policy decisions. This lack of clout is evidenced by the outcome of the recent spending review, which saw Defra's budget rise by only 1.2% per year, as against an average of 2.3% across the rest of Government, excluding the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills, which saw increases of 7.1% and 5.2% respectively.[32] We urge the Department to continue to work to increase its influence across Whitehall. We recommend that future Departmental Reports record failures as well as successes in working with other parts of Government. We make a further recommendation about this point below.

19. One way in which the Department is seeking to increase its influence and embed its aims across Government is through a programme of secondments from Defra and its agencies to other parts of Government, and vice versa. The permanent secretary told us that 173 staff below senior civil service (SCS) grade were either seconded into or out of Defra, and at SCS level 30 had been seconded out and 10 were seconded in.[33] In addition, agreement had been reached with the Department of Trade and Industry to arrange "strategic secondments between the departments".[34] Defra also planned more "short-time shadowing".[35] Sir Brian agreed that "you can influence and learn about other organisations by working in them".[36] We strongly support the efforts made to encourage secondments between Defra and other government departments. We look forward to more details in future Departmental Reports about these activities.

Working to get Defra's message across

20. One section of the Departmental Report is devoted to communications.[37] The report says that "during 2003-04, Defra has worked towards embedding a more strategic approach to communications by all in the Department enabling better communication of Defra's work to its wide range of external audiences".[38] In evidence the director of communications gave us examples of communication activity. He said that the Department is planning to mount a publicity campaign about waste:

The public awareness campaign will consist of two interlocking initiatives. On the local side the 'how to' of waste minimisation will be aimed at local authorities and their communities, which we will roll out later this year. The national campaign will be the 'why' of waste minimisation. We have already assigned a budget for the national campaign that covers television advertising, the press and awareness-raising events.[39]

21. On climate change, the permanent secretary said that the Department had spent "about £13 million on climate-related communications, mainly looking at areas like energy efficiency and renewables".[40] The Department was also looking to affect the national curriculum in science and geography, and was working with a number of agencies "on public attitudes towards climate change in the period ahead".[41] He agreed, though, that more could be done. The achievement of many of the goals of Defra, such as the promotion of recycling and reuse, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, require changes in public attitudes and behaviour. We recommend that the Department redirect its communication activities so that its primary focus is on conveying the message of sustainability to the public.

Staffing

Senior appointments

22. The Liaison Committee has said that one of the core tasks of all select committees should be to keep abreast of major appointments made by government departments. It is a matter we raised in our Annual Report 2002,[42] and again in our Annual Report 2003, where we recommended that Defra put in place procedures "to inform us in advance of all major appointments pending and/or made".[43] When we interviewed the permanent secretary, the Government reply to our Annual Report had not yet been received. We therefore asked what progress had been made in responding to our recommendation. Sir Brian told us that "advice on how to respond to this is currently with ministers".[44]

23. It was apparent from the answers given that there was a degree of confusion about our original recommendation.[45] We therefore offer clarification. We wish to be informed of major appointments made by Defra, including at the level of director general or above within the Department, and at senior levels in its associated public bodies. We ask only to be informed of vacancies, and of appointments made. Our aim is not to approve or reject candidates. Indeed we may not take evidence from many of them. But we do at least wish to know about appointments so that we can consider whether to take evidence from senior figures at an early stage about their responsibilities and their plans. We recommend that Defra put in place arrangements without delay to provide us with this information.

Diversity

24. In our last report on the Departmental Report we discussed the issue of staff diversity. We noted that Defra had set itself targets for the recruitment and retention of female employees, staff from ethnic minority backgrounds and those with disabilities.[46] The Departmental Report 2004 makes clear that Defra has improved its performance in this area, doing well against its targets in each case, as the table below illustrates. However, the table also shows that the targets have proved challenging in relation to the senior civil service (SCS) and grade 6 staff.

Table 2: Diversity of staff in Defra

	Target (% by 2005)	Range of outturns in grades below 6 (% by 2004)	Outturn for grade 6 (% by 2004)	Outturn for SCS staff (% by 2004)
Female staff	30	30-60	24	23
Staff from ethnic minority backgrounds	4	3-14	1	3
Staff with disabilities	3	4-12	5	1

25. Defra subsequently told us that by June 2004 the proportion of women in SCS grades had risen to 27%.[47] Nevertheless in his evidence the permanent secretary conceded that the targets set were "challenging".[48] He pointed out that a number of support networks had been set up for "under-represented groups", and that Defra had a "diversity and equality action plan" which addressed problems of recruitment and progression.[49] The permanent secretary had chaired a workshop about diversity in February 2004.[50] Also in hand was a programme put forward by the Cabinet Office called "elevated partnership … a mentoring programme for middle management women",[51] which would be introduced in September 2004.[52] We commend the Department, and the permanent secretary in particular, for the efforts made to promote diversity in the staff of Defra. Given the success it has had in the other grades we recommend that the Department now focus particularly on improving the diversity of staff in senior grades.

26. The Departmental Report also sets out limited data about the proportion of senior staff in the Department and its executive agencies who are female. Here the picture is much less impressive than in Defra itself: on 1 April 2003 only 16% of SCS staff across the Department and its agencies were women.[53] In further evidence the Department told us that the figure had risen to 23%, but that is still much lower than in Defra itself.[54] We recommend that targets are set for improving diversity amongst the staff of Defra's executive agencies. We recommend that the permanent secretary take responsibility for ensuring that the agencies have in place programmes to encourage the recruitment, retention and progression of staff who are female, from ethnic minority backgrounds or with disabilities.

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13 Later the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions Back

14 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Tenth Report of 2001-02, The Role of Defra, HC 991; HC (2001-02) 969; HC (2002-03) 832 Back

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19 Departmental Report 2004, p 29 Back

20 Departmental Report 2004, p 29 Back

21 Ev 28, para 1(ii) Back

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23 Departmental Report 2004, p 15 Back