Committee publication · Correspondence · 20 May 2026

Correspondence from the Cabinet Office relating to rural proofing policies, dated 24 March 2026

From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Work of the Department and its arm’s-length bodies

Summary

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Cabinet Office Minister, responds to an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee inquiry from December 2025 on rural proofing implementation. The Cabinet Office states it has limited direct policy responsibility and relies on coordination with DEFRA. It highlights a DEFRA-developed training course on understanding rural areas, which 324 civil servants have completed since 2022.

Key findings

Cabinet Office has minimal discrete policy development responsibility and therefore limited direct rural proofing considerations in its own activity
Cabinet Office coordinates with DEFRA on activities including the Greening Government Commitments, delegating substantive rural policy to relevant departments
DEFRA's 'Better Policy Making – Understanding Rural Areas' course was added to Cabinet Office's skills platform in 2022 to build civil service rural policy understanding
324 civil servants have completed the rural areas training course since 2022; departments determine mandatory participation individually
Response delayed due to acknowledged administrative errors within Cabinet Office

Tone

Procedural

Topics

rural-policygovernment-coordinationcivil-service-training

Key actors

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Alistair Carmichael, Cabinet Office, DEFRA, Government Skills team

Notable line

“… the Cabinet Office works very closely with DEFRA on a range of activities, such as working to deliver the Greening Government Commitments …”

Key Quotes

“The majority of Cabinet Office activity is focused upon the coordination of government activity and delivery of internal services.”
— Nick Thomas-Symonds · explaining Cabinet Office's limited direct policy role

“The department has little responsibility of its own for discrete policy development and so does not have a significant amount of activity which carries direct rural proofing considerations.”
— Nick Thomas-Symonds · clarifying constraints on Cabinet Office rural proofing implementation

“In 2022, DEFRA requested that their "Better Policy Making - Understanding Rural Areas" course be added to my department's skills platform to widen the Civil Service's knowledge of the policy.”
— Nick Thomas-Symonds · detailing rural training initiative

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗