“This cannot continue”: PAC calls for immediate overhaul of Defra’s IT systems

The Public Accounts Committee has called for a complete overhaul of the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)’s IT systems to ensure air quality, safe food and water supply.

In a new report, the Committee labelled Defra’s IT systems “outdated, inefficient, expensive, at constant risk of failure or cyberattack.”

“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,” said deputy chair of the committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

“Systems outdated and difficult to use”

The report said that for Defra’s customers, that range from farmers to vets to scientists to traders and beyond, “its legacy IT systems feel outdated and difficult to use.”

Defra and its organisations handle around 14 million transactions per year that still involve paper forms, making them “inefficient and expensive.”

“Though it is embarking on a fundamental review and potential restructure of its organisation, Defra does not yet have a concurrent proactive 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,” said the report.

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 said the lack of overall vision means any changes made now to its digital systems may not be appropriate in the longer-term and could lead instead to wasted time and money.

Impact of poor digital services on users

Elsewhere, 80 percent of Defra’s IT applications remain either in extended support, possibly incurring additional charges for updates, or are completely unsupported by their supplier, and it hasn’t given enough attention to the impact of its poor digital services on its users, said the committee.

“It doesn’t measure the cost to users of its unmodernised digital services, so it is not possible to assess the total burden they place on other organisations and the wider economy. For example, previously vets had to buy old laptops to be able to run the programmes they needed to use.”

As with elsewhere in government, “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 Committee is calling on Defra to explain what new approaches it will adopt to recruit staff and reduce its reliance on contractors and temporary staff to provide digital skills.”

“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, proactive digital strategy that matches every step,” said Clifton-Brown.