UK’s DEFRA annual report ‘pure poetry’
The UK’s much-criticised Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has again come under fire – this time from a panel of Members of Parliament charged with monitoring its performance in the wake of last year’s foot and mouth epidemic.
Published yesterday, the department’s annual report was condemned by the environment, food and rural affairs select committee as being ‘pure poetry’ and so lacking in content that it should be sung by the Welsh opera singer, Charlotte Church.
Laying most of the blame at the door of Margaret Beckett, the head of DEFRA, the chairman of the report, David Curry commented: "We are thoroughly dissatisfied with the department’s annual report. The problem is that there are serious omissions and it is riddled with inaccuracies. It also contains too many warm words and aspirations and too few real figures. Responding to the criticism, a DEFRA spokesman admitted that there were "problems with databases that led to a number of errors in the financial figures."
