House of Commons - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Fifth Report

3 Incorporation of Lord Haskins's recommendations into the Government's Rural Strategy

19. The Government "accepted the principle or the detail of all but two of the recommendations in the Rural Delivery Review".[25] The first was the abolition of the Countryside Agency, and the second was a recommendation that the Whole Farm Approach could be further accelerated.[26] Defra also cautioned against a literal interpretation of Lord Haskins's theme of a 'separation' between policy and delivery:

"The Government agrees that there should be clear roles and responsibilities, but its delivery strategy is based on policy and delivery being carried out in a close working partnership. This principle is a key underpinning theme of Rural Strategy 2004 and the delivery reforms".[27]

Lord Haskins sought to correct any misunderstanding of his position on this issue. He told us that his intention had been:

"to make sure that policy-makers, who do not have control over delivery, have to consult properly on the policy-making process with delivery people. That means the delivery people under my proposal would have a stronger influence in policy-making than they do at the present time where the whole thing is controlled by the policy-makers at the centre".[28]

Countryside Agency

20. It was the future of the Countryside Agency that represented the most significant divergence between the Government and Lord Haskins. Instead of completely abolishing the Countryside Agency, as Lord Haskins had recommended, the Government decided to retain it with a diminished role. When exploring this issue with the EFRA Committee in 2003, Lord Haskins noted that "the creation of Defra, in my view, made a lot of the Countryside Agency's role redundant and that is why I recommend that it should disappear altogether, because Defra should be doing this for itself".[29] This potential for overlap was echoed in the conclusions of the EFRA Committee's inquiry on the Countryside Agency, in 2002. We suggested then that the creation of Defra would "to some extent supersede the role of the Countryside Agency as rural advocate, and as the provider of funding and advice to rural communities".[30]

21. Lord Haskins's review had acknowledged the need for "an independent challenge on rural affairs policy and delivery", and suggested the National Rural Affairs Forum could take on this role.[31] However, Defra explained that it thought it was "better to retain a small New Countryside Agency, with the Rural Advocate as Chair, than to create a 'central team' within the National Rural Affairs Forum".[32] The Minister said:

The advice role of the Countryside Agency needed to be maintained somewhat at arm's length and on a more institutional basis than Haskins foresaw the role for the Forum. […] That is why we have gone for the new Countryside Agency with a strong advice role both to Defra, to all the agencies within Defra and right across Whitehall.[33]

22. Lord Haskins seemed content with the way Defra was handling this issue. He told us that, on balance, the Government was "probably right to go for the Countryside Agency", rather than the National Rural Affairs Forum, because it was "more structured to give the sort of policy advice that is necessary".[34] Defra's decision obviated the need to reform the National Rural Affairs Forum, as suggested in Lord Haskins's recommendation, as that would duplicate the role of the New Countryside Agency. On the basis of this decision, the National Rural Affairs Forum has now been stood down.[35]

Forestry Commission

23. The Government's Rural Strategy envisages the following implications for the Forestry Commission:

responsibility for strategic forestry policy in England will transfer to Defra so it will be able to consider the role of forestry as part of an integrated approach to delivering public benefits from land management

Defra will transfer its forestry delivery responsibilities to the Forestry Commission. This will broaden the responsibilities of the Forestry Commission as the lead delivery body for forestry

the Forestry Commission will become a close working partner of the new Integrated Agency providing distinct but complementary expert roles and will work with the Agency to modernise and streamline arrangements for more effective and efficient delivery of rural policy objectives.[36]

This outcome was consistent with Lord Haskins's review, which said it was "logical to integrate or closely align the delivery functions (regulation, incentives, advice) of the Forestry Commission in England with those of the new agency".[37] Lord Haskins's evidence made clear that he would have preferred the Forestry Commission to be more integrated with the new Agency than it is.[38] He seemed content that the policy side of the Forestry Commission has been brought into Defra, but, on the delivery side, he was "still not entirely clear why there is a special case for having the Forestry Commission as a separate entity" outside the new agency.[39] Some other witnesses also argued that the Forestry Commission should be integrated.[40] CRE suggested that it should be merged with other agencies into a single 'Natural Resources Agency'.[41]

24. Even the Forestry Commission admitted that the question of whether to integrate the Forestry Commission into the new Agency was "quite finely balanced".[42] It stressed how important it was to "retain clarity, and also a degree of distinctiveness, so you do not lose the expertise and the skills which are around in the organisational structures which exist irrespective […] of how you then move them around and reorganise them".[43]

25. Defra noted that "incorporating functions of the Forestry Commission—a body with responsibilities across Great Britain—would add a further level of complexity" to the proposed reorganisation.[44] The Minister felt that, irrespective of the fact that the Forestry Commission was a GB body, there was not "an overwhelming case for incorporating the Forestry Commission in the Integrated Agency and indeed there are significant downsides of so doing".[45]

26. Written evidence from the Forestry Commission highlighted areas with which it and the Integrated Agency could adopt a partnership approach.[46] This concept of partnership is echoed in the policy statement accompanying the draft Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill, which refers to the Integrated Agency and the Forestry Commission working together "to ensure that their collective influence is brought to bear in a coherent and unified manner to make maximum impact in the advice they give to Government and others at national, regional and local level".[47] The Minister noted that there would be scope for cross-delegation of the activities of the Forestry Commission and the Integrated Agency under the provisions of the draft Bill.[48]

27. We recognise the complexity of addressing the future status of the Forestry Commission, since its operations cover Scotland and Wales, as well as England. However, it seems anomalous that the delivery functions of the Forestry Commission are not to be included in the remit of the Integrated Agency. If the territorial problem cannot be resolved easily, we recommend the closest possible working between the two organisations, including, where appropriate, shared targets. We welcome the fact that the draft Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill envisages this kind of relationship.

25 Ev 119 Back

26 Defra's detailed response to each of Lord Haskins's recommendations was set out in Annex C of the Rural Strategy. Back

27 Ibid. Back

28 Q 115 Back

29 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Minutes of Evidence and Memoranda, Wednesday 17 December 2003, Session 2003-04, Rural Delivery Review, HC 148-i, Q 40 Back

30 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Second Report of Session 2001-02, The Countryside Agency, HC 386, para 11 Back

31 Christopher Haskins, Rural Delivery Review, 2003, p 48 Back

32 Ev 118 Back

33 Q 299 Back

34 Q 122 Back

35 Q 315 Back

36 Ev 13 Back