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Defra's IT and administrative systems 'at constant risk of failure or cyber attack', according to Public Accounts Committee
Defra is putting England's air quality, food safety, and water supplies at risk thanks to "outdated, inefficient, expensive" IT systems that are "at constant risk of failure or cyber-attack", MPs have warned in a sobering new report today.
MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) are calling for a "complete and coordinated" overhaul of Defra's IT systems, which are used by a wide range of businesses and individuals and are critical to the country's trade, disease prevention, flood protection, and air quality monitoring programmes.
The report concludes that the Department's legacy IT systems - used by farmers, vets, scientists, traders, chemicals firms, and other businesses - are "outdated and difficult to use".
Moreover, it found that Defra and its arms length bodies currently handle around 14 million transactions per year, but are doing so in a manner that is "inefficient and expensive" with many processes still reliant on paper forms.
The Parliamentary Select Committee accused the Department of a failure to recognise and focus on tackling the negative impacts and economic costs associated "obsolete, disconnected" administrative and IT systems, warning that the current approach risked harming broader environmental protection efforts.
Defra estimates it needs to spend £726m on modernising its legacy IT and administrative services through to 2025, and that fully transforming its digital systems could save £20m to £25m each year. But the report warns that without an overall vision to modernise the Departments systems long term costs could escalate.
In addition, the report warns the Department is struggling to recruit the digital, data, and technology staff it needs to operate and modernise its systems, and as a result remains over-reliant on contractors that can cost up to twice as much as full time staff.
Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, deputy chair of the PAC, said that given the Department's critical responsibility in key areas such as tackling animal diseases, pandemics, air quality monitoring, and ensuring clean water supplies, immediate action was required to upgrade and modernise Defra's administrative and IT systems.
"We are facing down rapidly spreading animal diseases, maybe the next pandemic, with systems that may rely on moving paper forms around," he said. "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's report calls on the government to develop a strategy and vision for its long-term digital transformation, setting out how it intends to better assess and monitor its IT system needs and impacts, and boost its recruitment of key digital expertise.
Defra's inner workings have faced a flurry of criticism in recent months, with the National Audit Office warning just last month that "weaknesses" in the Department's oversight and enforcement environmental regulations were putting England's natural environment at risk.
However, a spokesperson for Defra insisted the Department was committed to improving its digital services and had already made "significant progress" on enhancing and improving the resilience of its current services through "an effective and wide-ranging investment plan".
"We have already delivered new and improved services to improve flood warnings, farming and countryside schemes and food imports and exports, developed with the input of end-users and customers," Defra said in a statement. "Defra is a wide-reaching organisation, and we are committed to improving the quality and availability of our digital services and ensuring our systems are secure and resilient."
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