What is going on with those civil servants and government bodies?
The other morning I listened to the news in disbelief. Civil servants had ‘lost’ discs, apparently randomly chucked onto a courier van, containing the personal data, yes really, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, bank details and heaven knows what else, of twenty five million people! Nice one.
And it’s November not April.
Today…
…I open an unsigned letter from Natural England which informed me that
‘as my organic registration had been terminated I no longer qualify for the Organic Entry Level Scheme (OELS).’
The first I’d heard about it. Not so long ago I’d written a fat cheque to the Soil Association for the privilege of using them as my Organic Inspection Body (OIB). See the excerpt below:
‘Congratulations – your licence has been renewed
Thank you very much for returning your compliance form and the information requested. This has all been approved and we are pleased to renew your licence.
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your successful certification. We encourage you to display your certificate prominently to gain maximum benefit from the strength of the Soil Association symbol.
Your licence is now valid until the end of August 2008. At the start of this month we will issue an invoice for your annual fee. On receipt of payment we will then send your annual certificate for the following year.’
Curiouser and curiouser. It is November?
Then, to cap it all, dear old Natural England have decided, in their wisdom, to develop a website called Nature on the Map where, with a click of a mouse and a post code (plus some fiddling and cursing on a slow cumbersomely designed site), you can access a map and all relevant details of anyone’s land to see if they are being paid shed loads of tax payers’ money for environmental schemes.
Fine and dandy, you say, good idea to know where my taxes are going.
So it would be if their facts were correct.
Locks Park Farm, according to the information on the site, is apparently enjoying the benefits of a Countryside Stewardship Scheme.
No we’re jolly well not.
Our Countryside Stewardship Scheme finished. They run for ten years and anyway have now been replaced by Higher Level Stewardship (HLS). Our application for HLS was rejected as money ran out. But we were informed we were no longer of high enough quality to qualify, not really good enough!
Interesting. This organic farm is heaving with breeding barn owls, dormice, bats, rare butterflies and moths, multitudinous varieties of birds, oh yes, and badgers, stoats, voles, foxes, mice, rats, squirrels, flora to die for, ancient green lanes, cob barns, original longhouse, and intricate field patterns that have remained the same for hundreds of years.
Maybe I’m wrong and it is April after all…
Let’s get this straight. Twenty-five million peoples’ personal details are at the mercy of any fraudster; the particulars of thousands of farms are now on the internet for anyone to access but are publicized with false information.
What a cock-up!
Can we impose penalties on the government for its gross incompetence?
And tell me, what trust can we have in Government to keep accurate, secure records?
6 comments
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November 22, 2007 at 11:04 am
Mopsa
No trust at all. I found the Nature on the Map site a couple of nights ago and although more than content to have the fact that I am in receipt of HLS public £s available wondered too if yet more sensitive information was being inappropriately cast into the public domain. I don’t remember being asked if it was ok to put my name up on a government website. Accountability is one thing. Privacy is another. And no doubt you’ve seen my rant about the child benefit idiocy. I suspect we have reached the point where too much is available at the click of a mouse.
November 22, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Jane
Have you calmed down yet? I left it a few hours cos I was too scared to add a comment. God, Paula you must be furious (I know I would be). Why the hell can’t these people get their act together???? If I ran a business like they run the country I’d be bankrupt!
November 23, 2007 at 8:27 am
paula
Hear, hear mopsa.
November 23, 2007 at 8:54 am
paula
Not furious, just speechless(!), Jane.
I’m pretty tolerant when it comes to genuine mistakes - after all we all make them.
But I despise poor excuses and totally avoidable blunders.
Instead of admitting there had been a gross miscalculation in the take up of HLS, the reason given was that this farm (which has been under a green farming scheme since early nineties in recognition of the wildlife and landscape produced alongside top quality food. And is used as a teaching and demonstration farm for organic and environmental farming methods) is not of a suitable quality…is a bit rich.
Rubbing salt in the wound…the other above reasons.
Hope you found your otters!
November 23, 2007 at 9:34 am
Jane
A great day looking for otters. I have written up a post on my blog…. so I won’t go on about it. I hate bureaucracy… we had to jump through hoops to get Andrew’s disability living allowance (even though both of us have given up work and we weren’t using any outside “carer” facilities that would have cost the NHS a fortune). Sometimes it feels like if you try to do everything right they throw it back in your face!
November 23, 2007 at 7:50 pm
paula
You’re quite right, it’s often seems an uphill struggle…