Ann Abraham welcomes PASC's letter to Defra
05 February 2010
Press release 10/02
The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, has welcomed the letter sent by Dr. Tony Wright 
, Chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC), to Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The letter follows PASC’s hearing last month about Defra’s response to Cold Comfort, the Ombudsman’s recent report on the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). In the report, the Ombudsman called on the RPA to apologise and pay compensation to farmers who had complained to her about the maladministration of the Single Payments Scheme. Defra have not accepted the Ombudsman’s findings in full and have declined to pay the recommended compensation.
Ms Abraham said:
“Defra’s response to my report has raised some fundamental principles about how questions of maladministration, injustice and remedy should be approached. It is extremely rare for the Government to refuse to implement the Ombudsman’s recommendations for financial compensation and I am concerned that Defra lacks a proper understanding of the Ombudsman system. I look forward to meeting with the Secretary of State to address this and to discuss my recommendations for improvements to RPA’s administration and customer service.”
