Defra slammed for ‘inefficient’ use of millions of paper forms

The government’s environmental department (Defra) has been heavily criticised for its “inefficient and expensive” over reliance on paper forms.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has revealed that Defra still handles around 14 million paper forms every year.

Consequently, the group of cross-party MPs warns that Defra is at “constant risk of failure or cyber attack” due to its outdated processes.

It adds that a pro-active strategy for digital transformation is needed to ensure the UK has a safe supply of water and food.

“Though it is embarking on a fundamental review and potential restructure of its organisation, Defra does not yet have a concurrent pro-active strategy for the transformation of its digital services, or for challenges like reducing reliance on paper forms and making applications widely available on mobile phones,” PAC’s report Tackling Defra’s ageing digital services concludes.

Defra estimates that it needs to spend £726 million on modernising legacy services between 2021 and 2025, and that fully transforming its digital systems could save £20 million to £25 million every year.

However, the Committee has warned that a lack of overall vision means any changes made now to Defra’s digital systems may not be appropriate in the longer-term and could lead instead to wasted time and money.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, deputy chair of the PAC, said: “Defra’s IT systems are so outmoded and disconnected – where they exist at all, instead of paper forms – that in some cases the professionals who keep our food, water and air safe have been forced to buy obsolete equipment just to fill in the forms to fulfil their regulatory responsibilities. We are facing down rapidly spreading animal diseases, maybe the next pandemic, with systems that may rely on moving paper forms around. This cannot continue.

“We on the PAC will also not accept a situation where Defra spends hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money on a disjointed upgrade programme only to find that it no longer fits the structure of new systems of air quality monitoring, food and clean water supply in this country. It’s time for a complete overhaul at Defra, with a concurrent, pro-active digital strategy that matches every step.”

The PAC partly attributes digital failings to the department’s dependence on third party contractors. It adds: “Defra is struggling to recruit the digital, data and technology staff it needs, and so it remains over-reliant on contractors which can cost up to twice as much.”

The report reveals that between October 2021 and October 2022, Defra ran recruitment campaigns for 244 digital, data and technology roles but could not fill 31% of these roles.

PAC recommendations:

• Defra should, within six months, identify the success factors behind the progress it has made in addressing issues within its legacy IT, and share lessons with other departments.
• Defra should develop its longer-term digital and data strategy, and ensure that this reflects the digital needs of organisations across the Defra Group;and it should write to the Committee by the end of March 2024, outlining details of the actions planned in its strategy, including the measures it will use to monitor performance and how it will establish and implement Group-wide standards for technology and architecture.
• Defra should set out how it will identify the problems and costs faced by its service users as a result of unmodernised services, and how it is going to address each of them.
• Defra should set out how it will ensure that investment and new digital systems put in place before it has made key decisions about the future shape, structure and digital needs of the Defra Group, will not need not to be rebuilt.
• Defra should explain what new approaches it will adopt to recruit staff and reduce its reliance on contractors and temporary staff to provide digital skills;and specify what target it is working towards for the appropriate level of contractors and temporary staff and when it expects to achieve it.
• Defra should strengthen its case for investment by developing its analysis of the efficiency savings that could be achieved through modernising its systems and processes; and write to the Committee within a year with the results of this analysis and what action it plans to take as a result.