Corporate report

Defra's actions in response to the Government Digital Strategy

Updated 16 January 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Action 1: Departmental and transactional agency boards will include an active digital leader

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) already has a board-level digital leader, who takes management responsibility for some of its principal agencies. It will review whether it is necessary to have digital skills represented at board level across the delivery bodies.

Progress during 2013

Defra continues to provide board-level digital leadership.

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will consider whether it is necessary to have digital skills represented at board level across its delivery bodies.

Progress in 2014

Defra’s digital leader is its chief information officer (Julie Pierce), who reports directly to the board.

Planned activities in 2015

Where digital is integral to service delivery in Defra’s agencies and non-departmental public bodies, the department will consider whether to have digital skills represented at board level.

Action 2: Services handling over 100,000 transactions each year will be redesigned, operated and improved by a suitably skilled, experienced and empowered service manager

Service managers will be in place for new and redesigned transactions from April 2013.

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra has committed to 2 high-profile exemplar transactional developments. In light of the experiences from these exemplar developments, it will review its other high-volume transactions. As redevelopments take effect, service managers will be put in place when appropriate.

Progress during 2013

Defra has 2 exemplar projects, the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme and Registration of Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers. Both these developments have been proceeding well during 2013, and service managers will be put into place close to when the new services go live.

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will review other high-volume transactions, based on the experience gained on the exemplar developments. There are contractual constraints on a number of other services but service managers will be trained and put in place as and when it is possible to redesign these services. Defra will also review how to simplify environmental transactions as a whole.

Progress in 2014

Defra’s exemplar services are:

• Rural payments, Common Agricultural Policy (for farmer payments)
• Waste carrier registration

Rural payments moved into private beta in July and the second phase of Waste carrier registration service went into public beta in November. A service manager was put in place for the first phase of the Waste carrier registration service, and a service manager will be appointed when the new Rural payments service is fully launched in early 2015.

Planned activities in 2015

Experience gained from exemplars means that Defra can begin to consider the redesign of other high-volume transactions as resources allow. Contractual constraints apply to a number of these other services. Defra is also looking at how it can simplify the wide range of environmental transactions.

It will continue to develop capability and expertise in-house, including appointing dedicated service managers where needed.

Action 3: All departments will ensure that they have appropriate digital capability in-house, including specialist skills

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

The department’s exemplars will be the catalyst for the development of appropriate in-house digital capability in Defra in the future, demonstrating what expertise and skills it will need in the future. It aims to include its plans for developing this capability in the Defra business plan for 2013/14.

Progress during 2013

Defra conducted an information-gathering exercise in summer 2013, as part of the civil service learning skills review, to understand existing skills gaps and priorities. Defra will have brought this together into a Digital Skills Action Plan by December 2013 showing how the identified needs would be addressed.

Planned activities in 2014

The Digital Skills Action Plan will identify a programme of work both to raise awareness of digital and build specialist capability. The exemplar developments are helping to demonstrate the in-house skills and expertise required to develop across the Defra network.

Progress in 2014

Defra took steps through its Digital Skills Action Plan (agreed in early 2014) to improve departmental digital capability. Its return on digital skills for the Civil Service Learning skills review showed progress in all areas.

Planned activities in 2015

Defra will continue to carry out and iterate its action plan commitments to raise awareness of digital across the department as a whole and to build in-house specialist capability for important digital skills.

Action 4: Cabinet Office will support improved digital capability across departments

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra welcomes Cabinet Office’s support in this area, particularly in sharing benefit and expertise beyond departmental boundaries.

Progress during 2013

Defra has supported the work by Cabinet Office to raise digital capability across departments.

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will continue to support the work by Cabinet Office to raise digital capability across departments.

Progress in 2014

Defra continued to support the work by Cabinet Office to raise digital capability across departments.

Planned activities in 2015

Defra will continue to support the work by Cabinet Office to raise digital capability across departments.

Action 5: For transactional departments, 3 exemplar services will be selected

Redesign starting April 2013, implemented by March 2015 (to be included in relevant business plans). Following this, departments will redesign all services handling over 100,000 transactions each year

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Its 2 exemplar transactional redevelopments are the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Delivery Programme (for farmer payments) and Waste Registration and Applications. In light of the experiences from these exemplar developments, it will review its other high-volume transactions.

Progress during 2013

Defra has selected 2 exemplar transactional redevelopments which have proceeded well in 2013 towards their agreed implementation dates.

The CAP Delivery Programme for farmer payments commenced the release of alpha code (for the Rural Land Register Viewer) by end November 2013, with a live service ready for January 2015.

Phase 1 of the development of a new system for the Lower Tier Registration of Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers will have completed its pilot build in November 2013.

Defra will consider the redevelopment of other high-volume Defra transactions, depending on resource and commercial considerations.

Planned activities in 2014

Phase 1 of the development of a new system for Lower Tier Registration of Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers will go live to users in January 2014. Phase 2 of the development will, subject to funding, extend the system developed in Phase 1 to cover existing Upper Tier carriers and is expected to go live to users in March 2014.

Progress during 2014

Defra’s 2 exemplar services progressed in 2014. Important milestones were:

• Rural payments for farmers went into private beta in July 2014 with the controlled release to customers of the ability to register and manage their land entitlements online
• Phase 1 of the Waste carrier registration was publicly launched at the end of 2013 (over 95% of registrations are now completed digitally, with a 95% satisfaction rate).

Planned activities in 2015

Rural payments will be made available for use by the public. Phase 2 of the Waste carrier registration will launch, this is extending the system to cover existing Upper Tier waste carriers.

As resources and other considerations allow, it will redevelop other key Defra transactions (like the Cattle Tracing System, Fishing Rod Licences and Flood Warnings).

Action 6: From April 2014, all new or redesigned transactional services will meet the Digital by Default Service Standard

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra welcomes the new Digital by Default Service Standard, which will be used as the basis for all its digital development from April 2014.

Progress during 2013

Defra’s 2 exemplar developments are being developed with close involvement of Government Digital Service, taking into account the Digital by Default Service Standard. Defra is including assessment against the standard in its internal review processes, linking to the formal Cabinet Office spend controls.

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will continue to apply the Digital by Default Service Standard to new or redesigned services.

Progress in 2014

Defra’s 2 exemplar projects were developed in line with the Digital by Default Service Standard. It carried out departmental service assessments for other service developments, like Rod Catch Returns and Fish Quota Register.

Planned activities in 2015

Defra is including assessment against the service standard in its internal review processes, linking to the formal Cabinet Office spend controls.

Action 7: Corporate publishing activities of all 24 central government departments will move onto GOV.UK by March 2013, with agency and arm’s length bodies’ online publishing to follow by July 2014

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra is already engaged in moving its online publishing activity to GOV.UK by 31 March 2013 (with specialist content following by 31 December 2013). It will work to support the subsequent effort to transfer online publishing from the websites of its delivery bodies (except where exemptions have been agreed).

Progress during 2013

Defra moved its corporate publishing activity to GOV.UK on 10 April 2013. Defra’s network of delivery bodies is working closely with the GOV.UK team to transition their websites (except where formal exemptions have been agreed).

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will continue to work with the GOV.UK team to ensure relevant Defra network websites transition to GOV.UK in 2014.

Progress in 2014

All agency and ALB websites moved to GOV.UK by the end of the year.

Planned activities in 2015

Defra will continue to improve the user experience of content on the main GOV.UK website.

Action 8: Departments will raise awareness of their digital services so that more people know about them and use them

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra will take steps to move its customers toward greater use of the digital services it provides. It will consider the use of a broad range of incentives and techniques to move people towards use of its digital channels including raising awareness of digital channels, effective engagement and promotion by staff, and rewarding digital users.

Progress during 2013

Defra is taking a case-by-case approach to moving its customers toward greater use of digital, recognising the distinct audience for its services. Key achievements include an increase in digital uptake of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) to 54% (up from 40% in 2012).

Planned activities in 2014

Defra intends to continue this progress in 2014 including a further increase in digital update of SPS Online and a target 90% digital uptake for the new system for Registration of Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers, up from 70% for current digital registrations.

Progress during 2014

Defra took a case-by-case approach to encouraging customers toward greater use of digital. A notable achievement was an increase in digital uptake of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) to 68% (up from 54% in 2013). Defra exceeded its target of 90% digital uptake for the Phase 1 Waste Carriers service (achieving 95% in 2014).

Planned activities in 2015

Defra plans to increase digital take up in 2015, with particular emphasis on the launch of the new digital by default Rural payments (CAP) information service.

Action 9: We will take a cross-government approach to assisted digital

This means that people who have rarely or never been online will be able to access services offline, and we will provide additional ways for them to use the digital services.

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra welcomes the planned provision by GDS of a common procurement framework to make it easier to set up assisted digital support services. It will encourage the development of intermediaries and franchises (with partners like farm software providers) which will allow others to provide services on its behalf.

Progress during 2013

Defra has been working closely in 2013 with GDS to support a common approach to assisted digital support. In particular, the CAP delivery programme has developed user roles to identify the kind of customers needing support.

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will continue to develop plans for CAP customers who genuinely need support. Defra are also keen to support work by GDS to join up requirements, so that shared and consistent support to individuals across the full range of their interactions with government is provided.

Progress during 2014

Defra worked closely with GDS to support a common approach to assisted digital support. The Rural payment (CAP) delivery programme developed detailed plans for a telephone triage process and face-by-face digital support centres, and started testing them. Defra began assessing assisted digital support required for the Waste Carriers and Rod Licence services.

Plans for 2015

Defra’s launch of the new Rural payments (CAP) information system in early 2015 will include assisted digital support aligned with the cross-government approach. This will be further developed in line with experience and customer needs.

Action 10: Cabinet Office will offer leaner and more lightweight tendering processes, as close to the best practice in industry as our regulatory requirements allow

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra welcomes Cabinet Office’s efforts to develop new procurement arrangements that will help departments use a wider range of digital partners, while maintaining appropriate commercial and contractual safeguards.

Progress during 2013

Defra welcomed the introduction of the Digital Services framework.

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will incorporate the Digital Services framework into the review processes for new development, linking to work already started to increase its work with small and medium-sized enterprise partners.

Progress during 2014

Defra made use of the Digital Services Store (formerly G-Cloud) for software and business support services.

Planned activities in 2015

Defra has included use of the Digital Services Store in its internal processes (aligned with the Cabinet Office controls). It will continue to work with GDS and Crown Commercial Service on new developments.

Action 11: Cabinet Office will lead in the definition and delivery of a new suite of common technology platforms which will underpin the new generation of Digital by Default services

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Where justified by cost and efficiency, Defra supports the delivery of common technology platforms to underpin digital services in the future. Trust is a particularly important issue for the development and usage of digital services in the future, and it will support GDS’s development of a common federated approach to identity assurance, in replacement of the existing Government Gateway system.

Progress during 2013

Defra supports the development of common technology platforms, and has been working with GDS on the development of a common federated approach to online identity assurance, a particularly important issue for Defra.

Planned activities in 2014

As resource and timelines permit, Defra will aim to adopt the approach to identity assurance for the new CAP delivery system and then across other services that rely on the existing Government Gateway system.

Progress during 2014

Defra supports the development of common technology platforms, and has been working with GDS on identity assurance.

Planned activities in 2015

Both of Defra’s exemplars have a major dependency on the identity assurance programme (now called GOV.UK Verify) and Defra will continue to co-operate with GDS on the development of identity services. It has already started planning the transition of more than 30 existing services before the current Government Gateway service ends in 2016. Its particular needs centre on business identity.

Action 12: Cabinet Office will continue to work with departments to remove legislative barriers which unnecessarily prevent the development of straightforward and convenient digital services

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra will review relevant regulations to identify where they are a real barrier to digital service delivery. It supports Cabinet Office’s efforts to address these barriers, and the intention to legislate to allow greater data sharing between government organisations.

Progress during 2013

Defra has reviewed the range of information burdens imposed on business as part of its Smarter Environmental Regulation Review. The department has embarked on a programme to rationalise guidance and information requests, which will also highlight opportunities to remove barriers to digital transformation.

Planned activities in 2014

Both of Defra’s exemplar developments are responding to changes and decisions made at European Union level. In the case of CAP delivery, Defra is trying to negotiate flexibility in implementation of CAP rules so that the new service can be fully digital by default. Defra supports the ongoing efforts by Cabinet Office to allow greater data sharing between government organisations.

Progress during 2014

Defra continued its Smarter Guidance Review, which seeks to rationalise guidance and information requests to the public and businesses.

Planned activities in 2015

Both of Defra’s exemplars are responding to changes and decisions made at the EU level. Defra has tried to negotiate flexibility in the new CAP scheme rules to limit complexity and support digital delivery, but this has not always been successful. It supports efforts by the Cabinet Office to allow greater data sharing between government organisations.

Action 13: Departments will supply a consistent set of management information (as defined by the Cabinet Office) for their transactional services

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Defra is already providing management data for some transactions. From April 2013 it will ensure consistent reporting on the key indicators that GDS has identified, except where existing systems would need amending at significant cost.

Progress during 2013

Defra is now reporting key management data for most of its transactions. The exceptions are where information is difficult to provide without change to legacy systems.

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will continue to expand the information it report on, in line with the requirements of the Digital by Default Service Standard.

Progress during 2014

Defra reported management data for important transactions like the Waste Carriers service. In some cases it encountered problems where legacy systems were difficult to change.

Planned activities in 2015

Defra will continue to expand the information it reports on as far as possible, in line with the requirements of the Digital by Default Service Standard.

Action 14: Policy teams will use digital tools and techniques to engage with and consult the public

Departmental digital strategy commitments (December 2012)

Excellent digital services start with better policymaking. Defra will make more use of digital tools (including social media) to support customer insight, policy development and service delivery. These will enhance, but not replace, more traditional non-digital methods of engagement. Defra welcomes the provision of central tools and standards by Cabinet Office to support this.

Progress during 2013

Defra has continued to develop its use of social media to support policy engagement and explanation. Defra’s News and External Communications team recently won the ‘Best Use of Twitter’ award at the UK Social Media Communications Awards.

Planned activities in 2014

Defra will continue to develop its use of digital tools to support customer insight, policy development and service delivery. This is designed to enhance, but not replace, non-digital methods of engagement. Defra will continue to welcome any guidance, examples and tools that Cabinet Office can provide.

Progress during 2014

Defra continued to develop its use of social media to support policy engagement and communicate on its activities. Defra’s News and External Communications team won the ‘Best Use of Twitter’ award at the UK Social Media Communications Awards. A policy week took place in November which raised awareness of digital and policy.

Planned activities in 2015

Defra will continue to develop its use of digital tools to support customer insight, policy development and service delivery.

Action 15: Collaborate with partners across public, private and voluntary sectors to help people go online

Action 15 was added to the Digital Strategy in December 2013, so reporting on departments’ actions will begin with 2014.

Progress during 2014

Defra’s Rural Communities Policy Unit includes a digital inclusion lead who provided support and advice to the cross-government digital inclusion team in GDS.

The digital inclusion lead is a member of the Digital Inclusion Sub-Group and ensured that the rural implications of digital inclusion were considered. The department is jointly funding research led by GDS into digital inclusion, and ensured that these rural issues will be incorporated within this research.

The department contributed to the development of the Digital Inclusion Strategy, and is embedding digital inclusion into delivery of digital and assisted digital services, particularly with Rural payments.

Planned activities in 2015

Defra will continue to support the digital inclusion team in GDS and will continue to be represented within the Digital Inclusion Sub-Group. It will provide GDS with support for digital inclusion research. Defra will wherever appropriate ensure that the rural dimensions of digital inclusion are taken into account in policymaking across government.

Action 16: Help third party organisations create new services and better information access for their own users by opening up government data and transactions

Action 16 was added to the Digital Strategy in December 2013, so reporting on departments’ actions will begin with 2014.

Progress during 2014

Defra began discovery of a project to enable systematic data sharing, both internally and externally, via application programming interfaces (APIs).

Planned activities in 2015

In 2015 Defra will proceed to alpha and public beta development of their project to enable systematic data sharing, both internally and externally, via APIs, subject to resource and business rationale.