The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (the
Department) has asked the Advisory Group on Responsibility and Cost
Sharing, under the independent Chairmanship of Rosemary Radcliffe,
CBE, to examine the current use of resources by the Department in
meeting the challenges of animal health, and to consider the way in
which they should be deployed and prioritised.
The Committee of Public Accounts has repeatedly recommended that
the Department share with farmers more of the cost of dealing with
animal diseases, and strengthen incentives to improve biosecurity.
The context of the Advisory Group’s work is the proposal, first
made by the previous administration, to put in place new
arrangements for sharing the responsibility and cost of managing
animal disease between government and farmers.
The Department reported to the Advisory Group that it spent some
£357 million on animal health in 2009-10. To support robust
financial management and sound decision making, the underlying data
must be reliable, complete and relevant, and be reported on a
consistent basis across the Department and its delivery bodies. In
order to make sound judgements about prioritisation of resources,
management teams in the Department responsible for oversight of
expenditure will also need to look for evidence that expenditure
represents good value for money.