Issuing an evaluation of Defra’s work over the last two years on Tuesday, the EFRA committee identified shortcomings and causes for concern, including plans for increasing reliance on private funding to deliver flood defence work, which has not yet materialised.   

Flooding

Defra hopes to attract £600 million from private funders to bolster flood defences, but the cross-party EFRA Committee warned that the low level of funding attracted so far is “a cause for concern” given the department’s ambitious future plans.

Committee Chair, Anne McIntosh MP commented, “We support the principle that the private sector should help to fund new flood defence schemes, but we have repeatedly expressed concern about the relatively small amounts of private sector funding secured to date under the Partnership Funding approach, with only £40 million of the £148 million secured up to 2014-15 coming from sources beyond local government.

“It is unclear how the £600 million target can be met, and we want Defra to demonstrate how it intends to obtain that money and to explain the impact on its investment programme if the money does not come forward.”

Badger cull

The committee asked Defra ministers to confirm whether badger culls will go ahead in 2015, continuing he four-year pilot projects announced as part of the government’s bovine TB eradication strategy. Results from the much maligned badger culling policy show that the Gloucestershire pilot failed to meet its license conditions for the second year, whilst in Somerset marks people narrowly managed to meet their reduced targets in 2014.

The NFU and Defra officials have blamed the repeated failure of the Gloucestershire cull on the presence of anti-cull activists.

Defra ministers have previously said no decision on the culls will be made public until after May’s general election, though Labour’s shadow ministers have said they will scrap the badger cull policy if the party comes to power.  

In its report, the committee also asked Defra to speed up research and development of a cattle vaccine, to reassure the public that effective action is being taken to combat TB.   

CAP failings

The committee also criticised the high number of penalties imposed on the UK by EU authorities for mis-allocation of Common Agricultural Policy funds. Since the introduction of the 2005 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Defra has been fined £580 million worth of disallowance penalties by the European Commission for making CAP payments inaccurately.

On the subject of CAP payments, Committee chair Miss McIntosh said, “Ensuring accurate CAP payments to farmers must be a priority for the Secretary of State. We have criticised the Department and Rural Payments Agency for the high levels of disallowance penalties incurred under the 2005 CAP and it is worrying that there is still a significant risk of further penalties being incurred. It is absolutely vital that Defra and the RPA use lessons learnt to minimise disallowance risks in future.”

In addition to the numerous policy failings identified, the EFRA MPs also highlighted poor staff morale among civil servants working for Defra, which has seen its portfolio shift between three different secretaries of state and numerous junior ministers since the coalition took power in 2010.

The Committee also criticised Defra for an absence of transparency in its plans to cut its budget in coming years.  

Miss McIntosh added, “The Department has not identified which specific policies and programmes will be reduced in future years, in spite of repeated requests for clarity.  Defra must be more transparent on where emergency money, such as winter floods response funding, is found.  We also need to know what the impact of cuts will be on policy delivery.”

The Committee said that, given the wide range and uncertain nature of Defra’s areas of responsibility (including providing protection and relief from extreme weather events, and combatting plant and animal disease) Defra must make a better case for its funding to be preserved in future spending reviews.