DEFRA to suffer after goverment spending review
December 15, 2010 at 11:08 am
More than a quarter of the 30,000 people employed by DEFRA are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the huge cuts being made by the current ruling coalition government. With the Environment Agency among the groups expected to be hit hardest by the cuts, the government has so far not commented as to how the UK is expected to meet its current recycling targets whilst reducing spending on projects and staff who are helping to combat the effects of global warming.
Reports so far have suggested that the job cuts are likely to occur because the department is trying to find ways to cut £174 million from administration costs over the next four years. As well as this, the environmental agency, a key regulator of the waste industry in both England and Wales, has come under scrutiny after reports emerged that the coalition government is looking to reform the department substantially.
Commenting on the potential job losses, the permanent secretary at DEFRA stated: “Including non-departmental public bodies, the total staff cuts will be somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 jobs across the whole network including the Environment Agency, out of 30,000”. However, she has in fact failed to disclose the full extent of the cuts that are going to affect the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which currently receives two thirds of its budget from DEFRA.
Whilst DEFRA has been outlining plans which seem to suggest that it will not see its front line performance affected, some countryside experts are now worried that any cuts made by bureaucrats will not be made with enough knowledge to see this happen in reality.
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