Department For Environment Food And Rural Affairs Departmental Report 2007

Dated May 2007

In 2007-08, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (the Department) received £3,617 million from the Treasury. The Accounting Officer is expected to manage these resources efficiently and effectively to deliver a range of services and operations within the funding provided by Parliament. The Department failed to allocate final budgets to each of its business areas until five months into the 2007-08 financial year because: (a) planned expenditure was in excess of funds provided; (b) budget holders did not declare all financial commitments from the outset; and (c) the costs of unforeseen floods and the outbreaks of animal disease had to be managed. A similar situation had arisen in 2006-07 when the Department had to make mid-year budget reductions of £170 million to avoid the risk of overspending. The late notification of the reductions had an adverse impact on performance. In part the problems arise from the difficulties faced in sponsoring 31 delivery bodies, each with its own administrative functions and with different approaches to setting budgets and monitoring progress. Obtaining timely and realistic financial reports from delivery bodies was also difficult. A lack of awareness amongst the Department's Board Members of good financial management practice, together with cultural issues which did not prioritise financial management at a corporate level, added to the challenges. The Department's Management Board has since put in place more rigorous financial and outcome monitoring systems. Having agreed budgets for 2008-09 that accord with the Department's allocation from the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007, the problems of 2006-07 and 2007-08 are not expected to recur in 2008-09.

Providing an overview of rural (spatial) planning for students on planning, geography and related programmes, this book charts the major patterns and processes of rural change affecting the British countryside, its landscape, its communities and its economies in the twentieth century. The authors examine the role of ‘planning’ in shaping rural spaces, not only the statutory ‘comprehensive’ planning that emerged in the post-war period, but also planning and rural programme delivery undertaken by central, regional and local policy agencies. The book is designed to accompany a typical teaching programme in rural planning and considers: the nature of rural areas and the emergence of statutory planning in England the agents of rural policy delivery and the potential for current planning practice to become a ‘policy hub’ at the local level, co-ordinating the actions and programmes of different agents economic change in the countryside and the influence planning has in shaping rural economies social change, the nature of rural communities and recent debates on housing and rural service provision environmental change, the changing fortunes of farming, landscape protection, and the idea of a multi-functional landscape made by forces that can be shaped by the planning process key areas of current concern in spatial rural planning, including debates surrounding city-regions, the rural the challenge of managing rural change in the twenty-first century through new planning and governance processes. A comprehensive coverage of the forces, processes and outcomes of rural change whilst keeping planning’s influence and role in clear view at all times.

Dated May 2007. On cover: Integrating and growing stronger. Spring 2007

Raising awareness and encouraging citizen involvement at a domestic level is fundamental to tackling climate change. This work examines: information and the raising of awareness about climate change; household energy efficiency; microgeneration; economic instruments and personal carbon allowances; and the role of the government.

Holding managers to account for the resources they have been allocated is key to improving financial management at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This need has been recognised by the Department and reflected in a programme to improve its financial management, but the Department's Management Board recognises that establishing a culture of tighter control over its expenditure will take time. This initiative must remain a top priority and managers throughout the organisation will need to produce more reliable estimates of costs to justify their bids for resources and track the cost effectiveness of work done. The budgets agreed by the Management Board at the outset of 2006-07 and 2007-08 exceeded the funds available. In early 2006-07, increased spending to remedy difficulties with the Single Payment Scheme led to a risk of overspending in that year and the Department instigated a review which identified savings of £170 million against its original budget of £3,854 million. During the early part of 2007-08 further commitments above the agreed budget allocations meant the Department was at risk of exceeding its spending limit by £140 million. In July 2007, the Management Board identified savings which partially balanced the budget and continues to work towards a balanced budget for the year end. Effective monitoring by the Management Board and greater integration between the systems for monitoring performance delivery and financial expenditure would help better management of budgets. The NAO recommends that the Management Board set budgets from 2008-09 onwards that balance with the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review and develops benchmarks to test the rigour of proposed budgets and to provide confirmation that these resource bids accord with the Department's strategic objectives.

Dated May 2007

Parliamentary scrutiny of the Government's finances needs to be improved. The purpose of scrutiny is to make the government's financial decisions transparent, to give those outside Parliament opportunity to comment, to have the opportunity to influence the Government's financial decisions and to hold the Government, departments and other public bodies to account. The complexity of the Government's financial system is a major problem. There are: departmental budgets determined in spending reviews; estimates; and resource accounts. Complicated reconciliations are needed to relate one to another. The Treasury has started an Alignment Project which should improve consistency and continuity between these three types of document. Parliament is not receiving the information required for effective scrutiny. Financial reporting to Parliament should: include the information that departmental managers use to monitor performance, rather than just financial control and audit information; enable an overall view of planned expenditure; highlight the information which is significant; relate the information to objectives and to what is achieved by spending the money; identify key risks; use graphs; be provided in good time; use plain English; and enable as assessment of the quality of financial management. The Committee makes specific proposals based on these principles. Select committees and the House should, together, engage with financial issues before the Government makes decisions. The House should take back the right to debate and vote on individual government programmes or items of expenditure, and more than three days a year (the current allotment) should be made available for this purpose.