HC Deb 21 December 1999 vol 341 c571W
Mr. Yeo

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if it is the Government's policy to reintegrate the Farming and Rural Conservation Agency into his Department; [103064]

(2) if it is the Government's policy to reorganise his Department's regional offices to match the existing Government standard regions; and if his Department's regional offices are to be absorbed into the Government Offices for the Regions. [103063]

Mr. Nick Brown

The Department already works to Government Offices regional boundaries where appropriate, for example in drawing up the regional chapters of the England Rural Development Plan under the EU Rural Development Regulation and in administering the EU Structural Funds.

As part of the Department's contribution to the Modernising Government initiative, we are currently reviewing the way MAFF's Regional Service Centres (RSCs) and the Intervention Board administer payments under the Common Agricultural Policy in England. In parallel with this review, and in the context of the Government's regional agenda, we are considering how best to achieve even closer integration of our regional policy activities with those of the Government Offices for the Regions.

The Farming and Rural Conservation Agency's major task is to assist in delivering important parts of the Rural Development Regulation. One significant option which is being considered would be for most of the staff currently in the FRCA to form part of a future MAFF presence in the Government Offices for the Regions.

The outcome of the review of MAFF's activities in the regions, including the future for FRCA, will be carefully considered.

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