This document discusses how digital technologies can deliver better outcomes for rural communities and government agencies that manage agricultural grant programs. It notes that over 40% of the European Commission's budget goes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) grant program, which is critical to many rural economies. A new digital system is being implemented to manage Britain's £15 billion in agricultural grants over 5 years. This system aims to improve data accuracy and compliance to reduce penalties from the European Commission and empower farmers to directly edit spatial data, leading to better outcomes for both rural communities and the government departments that administer the grants.

1. Talented Together
DIGITAL - DELIVERING BETTER OUTCOMES
FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES AND GOVERNMENT
June 2014

2. 1|UK Agriculture in Context
2|Grants Payments
3|A Digital Insight
4|Better Outcomes

3. AGRICULTURE IN THE UK
England
Department of Agriculture &
Rural Development (DARD)
Directorate for Agriculture, Food
& Rural Communities (DAFRC)
Wales Department for Environment,
Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)Department for Agricultural
Affairs

4. GRANTS PAYMENTS
Heavily regulated by European Commission under Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP)
the framework under which European farmers operate
> 40% of the entire EC Budget
Critical for the financial livelihood of many rural communities
CAP 2015 - a move away from subsidies to provision of public good,
particularly environmental policy

5. DEFRA
Delivering £15BN of grant payments over next 5 years
A major CAP Delivery Programme underway to improve systems and ensure
compliance with the 2015 CAP policy requirements
Business case built on improvement and disallowance mitigation:
Disallowance = fines from Regulator (EC) for non-compliance or error
disallowance penalties finalised or provided for since the introduction of the
CAP 2005 in 2008-09 is £600.1 million NAO 2013
Large proportion of grants are paid on Land related claims
Spatial data currency, accuracy, auditability and compliance is key to
mitigating disallowance

6. SPATIAL DATA
Sopra delivering the Land and Inspections area of the CAP
programme
open source & open standards
working closely with GDS
user centric design
A major shift to empowering land owners and agents -
digital by default
self serve map edits
shift from paper based process
potential reduced burden on DEFRA
greater accuracy

7. USER CENTRIC DESIGN EXAMPLE
AS IS
2 screens required
Lots of pop ups
Limited space for maps
Slow to learn

8. USER CENTRIC DESIGN EXAMPLE
TO BE
Large view of map
De-cluttered interface
Intuitive buttons for
faster learning curve
Tools and panels only
show when you need
them, keeps things
clean
GOV.UK design
Continuous User
testing and iteration
Modern HTML5 and
CSS3 technologies

9. For Government
Digital by default
Stronger validation = improved data = disallowance mitigation
Accessible data & control framework for EC auditors
Greater usability for internal users
Open source & open standards
Scheme agnostic data structure – less future code change
For Rural Communities
Greater control – self serve map editor to do real time changes
‐ reduced paper maps and red ink!
Reduced disallowance = more money to pay to those in need
Less risk of payment delay due to EC audit
BETTER OUTCOMES

10. QUESTIONS / ANSWERS