Conclusions and recommendations
Presentation of the Departmental Report
1. Although
the Departmental Report is more helpful now in seeking to provide
a commentary about performance against Defra's objectives, and
in identifying key relevant financial data, further improvement
is needed. We recommend that the Department in future make clear
exactly how it has performed against each target as part of its
main commentary, using the clear assessment currently relegated
to an appendix. (Paragraph 4)
2. Whilst we applaud
the Department's efforts to provide additional information to
its stakeholders, it must strike a balance between comprehensiveness
on the one hand and accessibility and readability on the other.
Defra should be as concise as possible in the Departmental Report:
this year the Report is more than long enough. (Paragraph 5)
Financial management
3. We
are convinced that financial management in Defra has improved
immeasurably in the past two years. We support the efforts of
senior staff to improve the situation still further. (Paragraph
6)
4. We welcome the
Department's efforts to update and improve its financial records,
to provide a more accurate picture of its historic spending. Doing
so reflects well on financial management in Defra. (Paragraph
8)
Integrating Defra
5. 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. (Paragraph 11)
6. 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. (Paragraph
13)
Working across Government
7. 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. (Paragraph 14)
8. 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.
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. (Paragraph 18)
9. 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. (Paragraph 19)
Working to get Defra's message across
10. 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. (Paragraph 21)
Staffing
11. 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. (Paragraph
23)
12. 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. (Paragraph 25)
13. 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. (Paragraph 26)
Climate change
14. We
recommend that the forthcoming review of the climate change programme
should ensure that Defra retains primary responsibility for responding
to climate change, but that other departments—including
the Department for Transport and the Treasury, as well as the
Department of Trade and Industry—firmly re-commit themselves
to reducing all emissions of greenhouse gases. We strongly recommend
that the review does not reduce the target for carbon dioxide
emissions in Defra's existing PSA target. In addition,
we recommend that Defra looks for additional mechanisms which
could be introduced in future to meet the Government's carbon
dioxide targets. (Paragraph 29)
Sites of special scientific interest and farmland
birds
15. We
recommend that in the next Departmental Report the Department
set out exactly the 'trajectory' it will follow towards the target
of bringing 95% of SSSI sites into favourable condition by 2010.
(Paragraph 33)
Rural affairs
16. We
look forward to the outcome of the review of rural funding streams,
and indeed to the overall Government plan for the implementation
of the Haskins proposals which we assume will form part of the
'refreshed' rural strategy. We will maintain a close interest
in these matters, which obviously have a highly significant part
to play in the way in which Government seeks to encourage rural
development. (Paragraph 36)
Waste
17. We
urge Defra to take all steps necessary to ensure that its PSA
target relating to waste is met. Again, it would not be acceptable
to respond to a likely failure to meet the target by making the
target less challenging. We will return to the subject of waste
policy later in the year. (Paragraph 39)
Fuel poverty
18. We
welcome the announcement made in the 2004 spending review of a
PSA target relating to fuel poverty which is geared to ending
the problem. We recommend that in its next Departmental Report
Defra set out in detail the measures it will take to meet the
new target. (Paragraph 41)
Air quality
19. We
recommend that the Department ensure that its PSA target relating
to air quality is maintained at its existing challenging level.
We look forward to the exposition in the next Departmental Report
of what the Government will do to ensure that its air quality
PSA target is achieved. (Paragraph 44)
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