Improving The Delivery of Animal Health and Welfare Services Through The Business Reform Programme: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency

HC 468, Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Session 2012-13

Author:

National Audit Office (NAO)

Publisher:

TSO (The Stationery Office)

Price: £16.00

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Between 2005-06 and 2011-12, the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency spent £103 million (from an agreed budget of £123 million) on reforming the way it delivers animal health and welfare service; 'Improving The Delivery of Animal Health and Welfare Services Through The Business Reform Programme: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (HC 468)' examines the contribution of the Business Reform Programme to further improve efficiency in this sector.

The Business Reform Programme was designed to:

• improve the quality of the Agency's data;

• upgrade its Information Communications Technology (ICT);

• standardise and automate its processes; and

• enable private vets to submit bovine tuberculosis (TB) tests online.

The Programme has been strongly managed over the last few years and the Agency has made tangible progress in addressing some key challenges at the same time as achieving £4 million in cost reductions to date. It is now forecast that the Programme will be completed by 2013-14.

In addition to reducing headcount by 119 full time members of staff, over halfway towards its final forecast of 214, new ICT is enabling staff to share data across offices, helping the Agency to generate better information on costs and performance..

Despite reducing the number of staff tracking the movement of cattle testing positive for bovine TB from 43 to 28, the number of tracings carried out in a year rose by 24%. However, there have been issues with the implementation of the new ICT, and only 11 of the 497 private veterinary practices signed up to submit bovine TB test results online are currently doing so.

The final stages of the reform programme are critical for securing the full benefits of the new ICT.

Extent	53 pages	ISBN	9780102977233
Size	A4	Price	£16.00
Format	Paperback	Published	18 Jul 2012
Availability	Colour copy: 3 - 5 days	Delivery	Delivery options and charges