Following yesterday’s blog about the appointment of Heather Hancock, grouse moor owner, as lead non-exec on the Defra Board a few more points.
- the transparency data on the Defra website are out of date despite being updated on 27 July 2023 – yes, yesterday! They have information about former non-exec directors but nothing about Heather Hancock. As I revealed yesterday, the information elsewhere about Heather Hancock is silent on her role as a grouse moor owner when grouse shooting is one of the contentious subjects that Defra is handling (or mishandling) right now. Do we know what Mrs Hancock thinks about raptor persecution, burning of blanket bogs, snaring, use of lead ammunition, designation of areas for wildlife conservation, climate change or rewilding? I don’t, but I can hazard a guess if I know that she manages a grouse moor – a fact that is not revealed to us on the Defra website. That’s not very transparent. In fact, it makes one wonder whether this information was deliberately omitted by Mrs Hancock herself (I doubt it, she surely wouldn’t be ashamed of it?) or by Defra on her behalf in a fit of lack of transparency.
- Defra states that its Board meets quarterly but the last minutes available on its website are those from 20 January, 14 March, 22 May and 22 July – but all of those meetings were in 2022 not 2023. That’s not very transparent is it?
- the Code of Good Practice of Corporate Governance in Central Government Departments states that ‘The boards will be balanced, with roughly equal numbers of ministers, senior civil servants, and non-executives from outside government.‘. This is not true of Defra at the moment. There are five ministers, four senior civil servants (although this could easily be out of date – is the Second Permanent Secretary a member of the Board or not?), two ex-officio members who are the chairs of Natural England and the Environment Agency (hardly counting as independent or outside government), and at the moment an accountant (Colin Day, we do need accountants involved when public money is at stake) and Heather Hancock (who, to be honest, does have a varied and impressive curriculum vitae – much more so than many a grouse moor owner but is missed off the list of Board members on part of the Defra website – a part listing Board members!). But there is no sign at the moment of a challenging, experienced and independent environmentalist. The two non-execs are outnumbered by the weight of the senior management and civil servants. There is nothing much to reassure me, as a taxpayer, that anyone is keeping an eye on the ministers and civil servants whatsoever. Maybe this is to be rectified soon.
- what do non-execs do? According to The Cabinet Office ‘NEDs are drawn from outside Government including from business, academia, think tanks and the voluntary sector, to sit on departmental boards. Their role is to support ministers and officials to strengthen the governance of departments, by bringing a commercial or independent perspective. They help provide constructive scrutiny and internal challenge to the work of Government.’. As far as independent scrutiny and internal challenge for Defra, that is largely down to a grouse moor owner and an accountant at the moment. I don’t have any confidence at all that the public is getting anything like the right level of constructive scrutiny and internal challenge of Defra.
- what does the lead non-exec do in each department? Actually it is quite a powerful position as the Code of Good Practice says ‘Each board will have a lead non-executive board member, who will meet regularly with other non-executive board members to ensure their views are understood and that the Secretary of state is made aware of any concerns (including through ensuring that the non-executive board members meet alone with the Secretary of state from time to time). The lead non-executive board member will support the Secretary of state in his or her role as chair of the board and liaise with the Government Lead Non-Executive.‘. Well, I’d guess it’s quite unusual for the lead non-exec to come into that role straight away, rather than having spent a while as a non-exec to get a feel for things, but I’m sure Mrs Hancock will cope. After all, at the moment she only has one other independent non-exec with whom to chat.
While we are thinking about these things, what does the Government Lead Non-executive do? According to the Code of Good Practice ‘The Government Lead Non-Executive will meet regularly with departmental lead non-executive board members, individually and as a collective, and feed their views back to the Prime Minister; Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service; and the Chief Executive of the Civil Service. The Government Lead Non-Executive will report to Parliament through an annual report to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. This report will include the key concerns of the non-executive board member network and provide feedback on policy implementation. It will also collate examples of best practice in the work of boards and non-executive board members. The report will also be provided to the Prime Minister; Secretaries of State; Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service; and Chief Executive of the Civil Service.‘. That is phenomenal access to powerful people, so who holds this role at the moment? Lord Nash – see here. What price that Heather Hancock ends up as the Government Lead Non-executive if the Tories get back in?
Defra is a shambles. It can’t even keep the information about itself up to date on its own website. It now has two Permanent Secretaries but not nearly enough specialised civil servants and not remotely enough independent scrutiny. Maybe the Efra Committee should have a serious poke around in Defra’s effectiveness? But have a look at who is on that Committee – click here. Maybe the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee might glance in Defra’s direction. See who is on that Committee – click here.
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