Farming in the Uplands - ARCHIVE: Defra

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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have also provided advice to Government departments in response to requests for assistance. 32 EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be published in full, or part, in any form before 00.01am GMT Wednesday 16 February 2011 13.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
EMBARGOED ADVANCE COPY: Not to be published in full, or part, in any form before 00.01am GMT Wednesday 16 February 2011 Farming in the Uplands 9 the same vigour as the CRC in pursuing solutions to rural problems. 33 The decision to abolish a source of external challenge and expertise should not be justified on the basis of whether or not the current Defra Ministers have experience of rural issues. It is not clear to us that abolishing the CRC will result in an improvement in Defra’s rural policy development functions, or that rural issues will receive greater attention across Government. 14. We are concerned that, following the abolition of the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC), there is a real risk of a diminution in rural expertise within Defra and across Government. 15. The Secretary of State told us that the new arrangement would provide “a stronger champion for rural issues at the heart of Government”. However, we recommend that Defra set out in clear and unambiguous terms how its Ministers and Rural Communities Policy Unit will build their capacity and expertise in relation to rural issues and how they will provide the degree of ‘challenge’ across Government to act as effective advocates for rural communities. We further recommend that Defra’s Rural Communities Policy Unit be required to: • work across Government to ensure policy is ‘rural proofed’, • make its work accessible to the public, and • continue the data collection and analysis work of the CRC. Fulfilling these requirements should be included in the objectives of the Head of the Rural Communities Policy Unit. 16. Defra should, within six months of the final winding up of the CRC, publish an assessment of the work of its Rural Communities Policy Unit and an analysis of the overall savings achieved in providing Defra’s rural policy and statistical work as a result of abolishing the CRC. Following publication of that report this Committee will wish to scrutinise the work of Defra’s Rural Communities Policy Unit. 33 This has yet to be published. The uncorrected transcript of this evidence session can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/efracom/publications
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