ANNEX C Letter from the Chairman to the Prime Minister about Sustainable Agriculture

The Rt Hon Tony Blair MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

9 February 1998

I am writing to you in my capacity as Chairman of the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development. The Round Table is charged by the Government with identifying priorities, developing new areas of consensus and providing advice and recommendations to Government and others on the actions necessary to achieve sustainable development.

We are at present considering issues of sustainable agriculture. Christopher Haskins, Round Table member and Head of the Government's Better Regulation Task Force, is chairing a sub-group on this topic. They plan to finish the work next month and the Round Table hopes to publish it as a report in May.

Some of the preliminary conclusions seem to us to be of immediate importance in the context of the consideration currently being given to the organisational arrangements for the development and delivery of countryside and rural policy. I am therefore writing to convey the key conclusions which arise from this part of the study. They are as follows.

We consider that within Government there should be a cross-cutting approach to sustainable development; one which recognises departmental structures but is not fettered by them. This is necessary for all aspects of sustainable development, but especially (in the current context) for agricultural and rural policy.

It is important that the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions should retain a strong capability in areas which deliver sustainable development and action for biodiversity. But the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food should begin a process of preparing itself for a new role, ensuring that sustainable development has a prominent influence on its policies. This new role will become increasingly important if, as we hope, revision of the Common Agricultural Policy continues its current trend towards greater recognition of the principles of sustainable development.

As part of this preparation, MAFF should become fully involved in the Government Office of the Regions structure, allowing strategic objectives to be developed at the regional level which integrate the needs of agriculture with those of the environment and rural development. The GOR network offers a unique mechanism for the development of multi-disciplinary teams drawn from its constituent departments, linking central Government with the regions in a way that adds value to both. The White Paper Building Partnerships for Prosperity identifies partnership between the GORs and the proposed Regional Development Agencies, which will carry out the regeneration function currently with the Rural Development Commission, as one of the key features of its approach to regional policy. Ministers have made clear in the context of the establishment of the Agencies that they believe that urban and rural areas are interdependent, and that solutions and policies must recognise that.

I am copying this letter to the Deputy Prime Minister and to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.