Defra shake-up announced

Defra will merge two bodies responsible for animal health and abolish the Commission for Rural Communities, it has been announced.

The department has said the shake-up will better allow it to meet the coalition government’s commitments on service delivery. Secretary of State Caroline Spelman added that ’an urgent need to drive down debt’ had forced Defra to make ’tough decisions’.

The CRC, which has a £5.8 million budget and aims to ’address rural disadvantage’, will be replaced by a strengthened Rural Communities Policy Unit within the department. Animal Health and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, meanwhile, will be merged as soon as possible.

The NFU has described today’s announcements as a ’sensible move’.

But we’ve warned that any further reorganisations must not impact on UK agriculture’s ability to remain competitive in Europe.

NFU President Peter Kendall said: "Today’s announcements are sensible streamlining from Defra, which is tasked with saving almost a third of its budget. It is also heartening to see that Defra is embedding rural issues at the heart of the department, rather than those being delivered by arms-length bodies.

"That said, I am mindful that for some today’s news will mean job losses. I would like to pay tribute to the CRC and its work to date. We look forward to working with the new body for animal health on the important issues that lie ahead.

"All industries face tough times and agriculture will not escape from the impacts of government cost-cutting while it steers us through these times of great austerity. I would urge Government to ensure that any subsequent reorganisations across government, and its arms-length delivery groups, must not damage UK agriculture’s ability to be competitive in a Europe context."

Defra needs to find £162m of savings in 2010/11 - the third-largest sum as a proportion of a department’s overall spend.