Farming in the Uplands - ARCHIVE: Defra

8 Farming in the Uplands
these different groups need to be brought together, so we depend on the champion
being able to influence all of those policy levers”. 25
11. Defra’s Ministers have argued that their knowledge and experience of rural issues
enable them to be effective advocates for rural communities and issues within
Government. Mr Paice, for example, told us that:
...there is a great wealth of knowledge within the ministerial team, for a start, but also
within the Department and on the Government benches in the House of Commons
[...] We feel that the understanding of the problems of rural areas is there already. 26
At the time of the announcement of the CRC’s abolition, the Secretary of State said that
“focusing rural policy making within the department will give rural communities and
interest groups a direct link to central policymakers and a stronger champion for rural
issues at the heart of Government”. 27 However, given that Defra is supposed to be taking
on the breadth of the CRC’s advocacy role within Government, it was disappointing that
the Minister of State felt unable to comment on several issues raised in the CRC’s report,
for example, on rural housing, tourism and broadband. 28
12. The department intends to reinforce its capacity to undertake rural policy work by
strengthening its Rural Communities Policy Unit. The unit, which will have a complement
of 33 staff, came into being on 1 December 2010, when 14 staff were formally transferred
from the CRC to join Defra’s existing rural team. 29 The Secretary of State has said that the
new unit would work across Government to ensure that the interests of rural communities
were reflected. 30 Defra did not produce a rural impact assessment of the Government’s
Spending Review, but its Rural Statistics Unit produced a “one page summary entitled
‘Carrying out rural-urban distributional analysis of spending decisions’ [which] included a
link to the Commission for Rural Communities Rural Proofing Toolkit...”, which was
circulated to all departments in late August 2010. 31 Defra’s Rural Statistics Unit and Rural
Communities Policy Unit have also provided advice to Government departments in
response to requests for assistance. 32
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13. The CRC was not only able to provide independent expert advice and analysis to
Government on rural issues, but also took the initiative in bringing concerns to the
attention of departments, Ministers and the Prime Minister. Defra describes itself as “the
rural champion within Government”, but we are yet to see any evidence that it will provide
25 Q 101
26 Q 166
27 “Spelman announces agencies shake up” Defra press notice, 29 June 2010.
28 Qq 219, 220, 235, 183
29 HC Deb, 13 December 2010, col 531W; Q 168
30 HC Deb, 29 June 2010, col 36WS; “Spelman announces agencies shake-up”, Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs press release, 29 June 2010
31 This has yet to be published. The uncorrected transcript of this evidence session can be found at
http://www.parliament.uk/efracom/publications
32 This has yet to be published. The uncorrected transcript of this evidence session can be found at
http://www.parliament.uk/efracom/publications