SRDP Rural Development Operational Committee - risk register update: June 2021

Risk

Description

Impact

Mitigation

RAG Status

Future funding

The UK Government Spending Review provides insufficient budget to replace EU funding levels lost to Scotland and is only a one year settlement.

Between now and 2024-25 Scotland will lose out on up to £170 million of funding.

This will have implications on the ability of schemes to fully open to deliver on objectives, and ministerial priorities.

Continued engagement with DAs and at Ministerial level to press HMT for a fair funding settlement and long-term clarity.

Careful management of financial allocations and demand in-year to ensure available budget is fully utilised for key priority areas.

Medium

COVID-19

Disruption to planned activity resulting from Coronavirus restrictions.

Issues with claimants being unable to complete contracts due to work being paused, or contracted work not being carried out, as a result of the pandemic.

Officials continue to monitor progress, impact on budgets, and escalate issues.

Area Offices have put contingency measures in place to ensure continued delivery of services and no disruption to SAF window.

Applications are being reviewed on a case by case basis, if necessary.

Medium

Monitoring and evaluation

Evidence base for performance of schemes against outcomes needs to be robust.

Gaps in monitoring and evaluation make Annual Implementation Reports and ex-post evaluation more difficult.

Design of future support will need to be evidence led with clear outcomes and monitoring.

Dedicated RESAS resource now in place for scheme evaluation.

Evaluations now completed or underway for most schemes.

Progress against performance targets monitored through Annual Implementation Report and feedback from Commission.

Links developed with other administrations across the UK to share progress and good practice.

Low

Delivery of payments

Failure to deliver, or disruption to, SRDP payments.

IT issues could impact the ability of RPID to deliver SRDP payments as normal which could impact on customer business cash flow.

Manual contingency measures have been developed for making payments, if required.

National loan schemes are in place.

Low