Environment Agency and Natural England face 'radical reform'

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Communities and also in Environment, Local Government

The Environment Department today led the way in the "bonfire of the quangos", cutting more than half of its 90-plus arm's length organisations.

Defra also announced its largest agencies, Natural England and the Environment Agency, would undergo radical reform to make them leaner and more efficient - and to stop any policy-making and lobbying activities.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said: "Defra's current delivery network contains over 90 arm's length bodies and there have been difficult decisions to make in order to achieve the best value for money in this challenging economic climate.

"The announcement today confirms that the number of Defra's arm's length bodies will reduce by over half."

Among the 53 Defra quangos to get the axe are the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards, the Agricultural Wages Board and committees and the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy England Implementation Group.

The department had already announced it was getting rid of bodies including the Commission for Rural Communities and the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and withdrawing funding from the Sustainable Development Commission.

The number of scientific and technical advisory bodies is to be significantly reduced, with the majority being replaced with committees of experts, including the Zoos Forum, the Farm Animal Welfare Council and the Advisory Committee on Pesticides.

The nine National Parks Authorities and the Broads Authority are being retained but will be subject to a review of their governance and an increase in transparency, while British Waterways is being moved into the charity sector.

The Government's conservation agency Natural England, which the Tories attacked in opposition for both lobbying on and implementing policy, is to be reformed - as is the Environment Agency, whose responsibilities include flooding and pollution.

The organisations are facing significant cuts to their budgets in next week's spending review, and today's announcement said both would be dramatically reducing their back office costs, while keeping reductions to services to a minimum.

Natural England and the Environment Agency would be working more closely with other public bodies to ensure there was no duplication of their work, and implement "demonstrable culture change" and new ways of working which embrace the "big society" and a more customer-focused approach, Defra said.

They would also stop activities that the Government did not need to do and end policy-making and lobbying functions, the department said.

Download the full list of public bodies due to be scrapped or reformed here.