The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) faces serious problems in upgrading its digital estate.
The auditor has published a report on the issue, saying that despite progress with a programme to replace ageing legacy applications, the department does not have a wider digital transformation plan and lacks sufficient funding.
It says Defra has one of the most serious IT challenges in central government, with around 2,000 legacy applications within its group, 30% of which are built on software that is now unsupported, and years of low investment have left it with a serious risk of critical service failure or cyber attack.
The department has taken some steps to deal with the issues, having been given £871 million by HM Treasury for digital investment between 2022-25, and launching a Legacy Applications Programme – on which it is making steady progress – and efforts to modernise its infrastructure.
But it still has a number of serious problems, notably that: it cannot deliver all its aspirations with the funding it has available; it has not assessed the full service costs of operating legacy services; it is using a wide range of technologies that is difficult to standardise and rationalise; it is not creating applications that can be re-used across the group; data standards have not been applied to its legacy systems; and it is struggling to find and recruit people with the right digital skills.
There is also a government-wide issue in it being easier to get money for capital expenditure than resource funding, which can lead to departments providing digital services without funding for maintenance costs, which is then omitted from business cases.
Need for vision
In response, the NAO recommends that Defra persists with its Legacy Applications Programme and develops an overall strategic vision to apply to the whole group, with a stronger steer on what design and architecture are needed to support business transformation.
It should also look at appointing a chief data officer to develop common data models and standards, ensure there is scope for any new applications to be re-used, develop a better understanding of business and people costs, and work with the Central Digital and Data Office and suppliers on improving recruitment for digital roles.
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Government continues to rely on many outdated IT systems at significant cost. Defra faces a particularly challenging task in replacing its legacy applications and has begun to tackle it in a structured way.
“The full potential of technology in improving public services and reducing cost to the taxpayer can only be accessed if this programme and others like it across government are delivered effectively.”
Meg Hillier MP, chair of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, emphasised the wider central government issues highlighted by the report.
“Defra is not the only department facing serious operational and security threats from ageing IT systems,” she said. “Defra relies on these outdated systems to safeguard the public through its work on disease prevention, flood protection, and environmental regulation.
“Today’s NAO report shows that Defra has done a good job, with the funds available, of fixing the most immediate issues in its IT estate. However, its digital estate has suffered from years of under-investment and is creaking at the seams. Without fundamental transformation, Defra cannot deliver the efficiencies expected of it. But it must have sustained funding to achieve this.”
