Departmental report : 2001 (MAFF) / Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Forestry Commission ; presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

  • Great Britain. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Date:
2001
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Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Departmental report : 2001 (MAFF) / Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Forestry Commission ; presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    This chapter reports on progress against our Public Service Agreement targets and Modernising Government Action Plan, and gives detail on our Investment Strategy. figs In December 1998, the Government White Paper Public Services for the Future: Modernisation, Reform, Accountability set an agenda for improving the quality of public services. This agenda included the creation of Public Service Agreements (PSAs) setting aims, objectives and related targets for each Department. These (Comprehensive Spending Review) PSAs were published in March 1999, and last year’s departmental reports were the first to report progress against them in detail. In the 2000 Spending Review, the PSAs were further developed, the most important goals and reforms being prioritised. These priority targets were set out in the July 2000 White Paper Spending Review 2000: Public Service Agreements 2001-04 and will be reported on in future departmental reports. MAFF’s PSA was altered to reflect the creation of the Food Standards Agency, and an increased focus on both rural development and consumer needs. (See the back cover of the report and Annex 4 for present and future aims, objectives and targets.) 14 e Implementation of the Action Plan for Farming and development of the Agriculture Strategy, comprising a range of measures to help farming modernise. 2.4 e Launch of the £1.6bn England Rural Development Programme in October 2000. e 42% fewer confirmed cases of BSE were reported in 2000 compared with 1999. e Launch of agriculture negotiations with EU applicant countries, as well as adoption of EU proposals for negotiations, on terms compatible with our ambitions for further CAP reform. e Increase in the area protected and enhanced under agri-environment schemes. e Publication of the joint MAFF / DETR Rural White Paper, setting out the Government’s vision for the countryside, in November 2000. e Successful containment and eradication of the classical swine fever outbreak in East Anglia. e 99% of all CAP claims paid by EU deadline. e EU fishing effort target limits for 2000 met by UK fishing fleet. e Major increase in investment in flood defence, including support for emergency repair work. e High level targets for flood and coastal defence operating authorities introduced in April 2000. e Close working with the food chain to safeguard food supplies during the fuel protests of autumn 2000. e 93.5% of visits to investigate adverse welfare cases were investigated within one working day against the target of 90%. e Electronic submission of IACS claims made available to all farmers in England for 2001 scheme year. The following table sets out MAFF’s ten objectives (objective 1 was updated on 1 April 2000 to reflect the creation of the Food Standards Agency), their associated PSA targets, and progress towards meeting those targets.
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