How do we work?

As part of our ambition to improve all the time, we are making some changes to the way we work. Most of the changes are internal, to our processes and procedures, and the way we are organised. Ultimately, our aim is to do what we do - achieve the outcomes Ministers and our fellow citizens want of us - better.

Our aim is to continue to evolve and be – in the true spirit of Defra – sustainable, flexible and responsive. Specifically, we are working on:

• moving resources (money and people) quickly and easily to support our priorities
• further strengthening our relationships with our delivery partners
• building on the passion our people have for what they do, by rewarding them for working collaboratively and being good leaders.

Some of the methods we will use to accomplish this will include:

• a move away from fixed, long term teams toward project working
• building in a quality assurance function to help ensure high standards and consistency in policy making across Defra
• ensuring our human resources, information systems and finance procedures provide us with the right information and support.

We will be altering our organisation structure from April 2007, and will publish an updated organisation chart on this site in due course.

Our reports and strategies

• Defra's sustainable development strategy: foundations for our future
• Risk management strategy
• Departmental report and Autumn performance report

Business planning

• Business planning
  • Public Service Agreement 2005-2008, with performance targets
• Departmental Investment Strategy

Finance

• Finance
• Doing business with us - Procurement
• Resource accounts

Geographical information

• Information on use of geographical information (GI) in Defra
• MAGiC website

Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat documents.