Defra staff’s emotional wellbeing is at ‘amber-red’ according to the department’s permanent secretary, Claire Moriarty CB.

Speaking to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee about Defra’s preparations for Brexit, the high-ranking civil servant initially said that she thought morale was “holding up pretty well”. However, when pressed further by Angela Steed MP, Moriarty said: “I am personally constantly concerned about wellbeing and the resilience of other people and the amount of work that they have to do at a great pace. We are seeing some people being under quite a lot of stress […] we have put in place better access to counselling.”

Asked by Steed whether the issue was “red, green or amber in terms of your risk list”, Moriarty said ‘amber-red’.

Recruitment challenges

Defra secretary Michael Gove said that there was not a staffing crisis at his department but “a recognition across the staff family that if we do leave without a deal, in order to safeguard the environment and discharge our responsibilities towards food producers then we need to have the best people in place so we’ve had friendly and constructive conversations with agencies like the Environment Agency and Natural England (NE) in order to ensure that we can have their staff working on some of these projects.”

The minister was criticised recently for taking staff from other departmental bodies to assist with Defra’s workload. Outgoing Natural England chairman, Andrew Sells, told EFRA committee last week that he no longer had a press office as it had been incorporated into Defra’s. Angela Smith asked how a non-departmental body (NDPB) could maintain its independence if that were the case. Gove said that NE does have a press office, however, when Farmers Journal Scotland contacted NE and asked to speak to the press office, we were invited to call Defra’s press office instead.

Suspicious minds

EFRA chair, Neil Parish MP said to Michael Gove that he and his committee had “naturally suspicious minds” and wondered whether the minister and his department might be ‘slipping’ unpopular measures “under the radar” as civil servants prepare to submit a slew of Brexit-related statutory instruments.

Michael Gove said: “Yes it may well be that well-meaning members of the team tried to slip something in and I might occasionally have my attention diverted elsewhere so even if I am innocent, I’d like to be inadvertently complicit.”