1 Overview of the
Committee's work in 2007
Introduction
1. This report is a review of the Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs Committee's work in 2007. The Committee is charged
with the responsibility of examining the expenditure, administration
and policy of Defra and its associated public bodies. In carrying
out our remit we seek to strike a balance between undertaking
detailed inquiries into major policy issues, systematic examination
of the Department's discharge of its duties across the range of
its activities, and responding rapidly to important developments,
including the publication of key consultation documents and legislation
in draft.
2. We review the Committee's performance in relation
to the 'core tasks' the Liaison Committee sets for select committees.
In the final section of our report we discuss the working methods
we have used.
3. The Committee examined the following subjects
in 2007:
Table 1: Subjects covered by the Committee
in 2007
| Subject | Evidence sessions in 2007
| Sub-committee? |
Outcome |
| Avian influenza | N/A
| No [an informal 'Observatory' has monitored developments in this area]
| Briefings from Defra |
| Badgers and Cattle TB: Final Report of the Independent Scientific Group
| 6 | Yes (one evidence session)
| Report in early 2008 |
| British Waterways | 6
| Yes | Report, July 2007;
Government response, October 2007
|
| Climate change: the "citizen's agenda"*
| 5 | No
| Report, September 2007;
Government response, November 2007
|
| Defra priorities | 2
| No | Evidence, October and November 2007
|
| Defra's Departmental Report 2006 and Defra's budget*
| 0 | No
| Report, February 2007;
Government response,
April 2007
|
| Defra's Departmental Report 2007
| 1 | No
| Evidence, July 2007 |
| Draft Climate Change Bill
| 4 | Yes (for one session)
| Report, July 2007;
Government response, October 2007
|
| Flooding
| 6 | No
| Evidence continues in 2008
|
| Implementation of the Environmental Liability Directive
| 1 | No
| Report, July 2007;
Government response, October 2007
|
| Rural Payments Agency* |
1 | Yes
| Report, March 2007;
Government response,
July 2007
|
| The UK Government's "Vision for the CAP"*
| 0 | No
| Report, May 2007;
Government response, November 2007
|
* The Committee also
took oral evidence in these inquiries in 2006.
Visits
4. We find it valuable to leave Westminster to hear
people's views and to see for ourselves places of interest and
examples of best practice. Usually these are domestic visits,
but on occasion we travel to other countries. For example, our
visit to Germany provided us with a very clear picture of how
successful that country's system for encouraging local renewable
energy generation had been—a system that is now being seriously
examined in the UK. On some occasions we take formal evidence
on these visits, and we describe this in more detail in Section
3. The Committee's visits in 2007 were:
Table 2: Visits by the Committee in 2007
| Location
| Date
| Purpose of visit
|
| Machynlleth, Powys |
January | Inquiry into Climate change: the "citizen's agenda"
|
| Community Carbon Reduction Programme (CRed), University of East Anglia, Norwich
| January | Inquiry into Climate change: the "citizen's agenda"
(Visit and oral evidence session)
|
| Stuttgart and Freiburg, Germany
| February | Inquiry into Climate change: the "citizen's agenda". Examination of German systems for encouraging renewable energy and decentralised generation
|
| Woking Borough Council |
February | Inquiry into Climate change: the "citizen's agenda", and in particular local combined heat and power schemes
|
| National Waterways Museum, Gloucester
| April | Inquiry into British Waterways
(Visit and oral evidence session)
|
| Olympic Lock, Prescott Channel, Bow
| June | Inquiry into British Waterways
|
| Gloucestershire | August
| Inquiry into Flooding, in particular the immediate response to the floods
|
| Fontainebleau, France |
October | 'Enjoy & Protect our Forests' Conference
(travel in a representative capacity)
|
| Devon | October
| Inquiry into Badgers and cattle TB: farm visits
|
| Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Weybridge
| November | Inquiry into Badgers and cattle TB
|
| Lyon, France | December
| Inquiry into Flooding, particularly to examine sustainable urban drainage systems
|
|
