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Risk management strategy


Foreword by Brian Bender

Risk management is an important aspect of all our lives. We are all exposed to risk daily, at work and in our private lives, and often manage it subconsciously. We need to ensure that we think about it actively in the way we deliver our business.

Risk to the Department’s business can take various forms, e.g. financial risk, risk to projects, risk to the services we deliver, risk to the public or specific stakeholders, risks from missed opportunities or from policy failures, and risks to our reputation. They can affect our performance, our stakeholders, our customers and members of the public. We need a clear understanding of how such risks should be managed. Doing this properly is central to planning to succeed and avoiding failure; to meeting our key objectives and targets; to creating confidence in a watchful public; and to meeting the demands of good corporate governance. It will also make us better able to learn the value of appropriate risk-taking and benefit from innovation within the Department, promoted through a ‘no blame’ culture.

This strategy outlines how I and Management Board colleagues want us to manage risk. It describes the four important elements – how we will identify, assess, address and review and report on our risks. It also clarifies the various roles and responsibilities. We all have a part to play – whether you are working in an Executive Agency or part of a core Directorate, this strategy should help you to understand your part in the bigger picture.

Ministers and the Management Board are committed to embedding the principles of effective risk management in the culture of the Department. Doing this needs to be a living process, not a "tick-box" exercise. Doing it effectively, across the board, will take time; the launch of this strategy is an important step along this road.

Brian Bender

Permanent Secretary
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
April 2002


Glossary

Balanced scorecard

A management tool for summarising progress against key Defra performance measures.

Business continuity plan

A series of arrangements that will be put in place to ensure that standards of service are maintained during a planned period of disruption.

Contingency

An action or arrangement that can be put in place to minimise the impact of a risk that has gone wrong.

Countermeasure

An action or process that is currently in place to contain a risk to an acceptable level or to reduce the threat.

Impact

The effect that a risk would have if it happens.

Innovation

Something new which may lead to better services, achievement of objectives or better value for money.

Risk

Something happening that may have an impact on the achievement of our objectives. It includes risk as an opportunity as well as a threat.

Risk assessment

The approach and process used to prioritise and determine the likelihood of risks occurring and their potential impact on the achievement of our objectives.

Risk management

Risk management in Defra means having in place a corporate and systematic process for assessing and addressing the impact of risks in a cost-effective way and having staff with the appropriate skills to identify and assess the potential for risks to arise.

Risk manager

The person who has day-to-day responsibility for implementing the countermeasures and monitoring their effectiveness.

Risk owner

The person who has overall responsibility for ensuring that the strategy for addressing the risk is appropriate and who has the authority to ensure that the right actions are being taken.

Risk rating

The classification (High, Medium, Low or Very Low) given to a risk, based on its likelihood and potential impact.

Risk register

A framework for capturing important information about each risk – e.g., a brief description, the DEFRA objective it affects, its likelihood, impact and rating, and how we are controlling it at the moment.

‘Top Ten’

The most important risks that Defra is currently facing.


Page last modified: 7 June 2002
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