1 INTRODUCTION
1. One of the core tasks of select committees is
to scrutinise the expenditure of Government departments and to
monitor their performance against Public Service Agreement (PSA)
targets.[1] The Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs Committee carries out this task in two
ways: through inquiries into particular aspects of the work of
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra);
and by carrying out a short inquiry each year into the Departmental
Annual Report.[2]
2. Defra published its Departmental Report 2005 on
16 June 2005. Helen Ghosh, the recently-appointed Permanent Secretary
at the Department, accompanied by its Director-General, Environment
and its Chief Operating Officer, gave oral evidence to us on 16
November 2005. Prior to the session, the Committee—with
the assistance of the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit—sent
a list of preliminary written questions to Defra, highlighting
several of technical details in the Departmental Report. The Department's
response to these preliminary questions is published as written
evidence along with this report.[3]
After the oral evidence session we asked Defra to respond to a
number of questions we did not have time to raise during the meeting.
The Department's response is also published as written evidence
along with this report.[4]
Involvement of stakeholders
3. This year, we slightly changed our usual approach
to this inquiry. We invited seven of Defra's major stakeholders
to submit written evidence outlining their views of the Departmental
Report. They were asked to consider issues such as: how user-friendly
the Report is as a document, and how it could be improved; how
accurately the Report reflects Defra's performance in their areas
of interest over the last year; and whether the financial figures
provided within the Report match up to their experience of departmental
expenditure. We also asked whether stakeholders were not aware
of the Departmental Report, or had never made use of it.
4. Two stakeholder organisations responded to our
invitation: the Country Land and Business Association and the
Campaign to Protect Rural England. Both organisations focussed
on aspects of Defra policy in their written evidence, rather than
the Departmental Report. Their written evidence is published with
this report.[5]
1 Liaison Committee, Second Report of Session 2001-02,
Select Committees: modernisation proposals, HC 692, para 16; Modernisation
Committee, First Report of Session 2001-02, Select Committees,
HC 224-I. Back
2
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Sixth Report of
Session 2001-02, The Departmental Annual Report 2002, HC 969;
Twelfth Report of Session 2002-03, The Departmental Annual Report
2003, HC 832; and Fifteenth Report of Session 2003-04, The Departmental
Annual Report 2004, HC 707. Back
3
Ev 1 Back
4
Ev 40 Back
5
Ev 55 [Country Land and Business Association]; Ev 56 [Campaign
to Protect Rural England]. Back
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