Quangos tasked with deciding farmers’ futures allowing staff to work from other side of the world

By GUY ADAMS and RYAN HOOPER

Published: 23:46 BST, 30 May 2025 | Updated: 23:49 BST, 30 May 2025

They are the bureaucrats charged with protecting Britain’s natural environment and those who toil away on it.

Yet while hard-pressed farmers face an uncertain time thanks to Labour’s inheritance tax plans, staff at three rural-focused quangos have been logging in to work from the other side of the world.

An investigation by the Daily Mail has discovered taxpayer-funded staff at Natural England, NatureScot and the Rural Payments Agency have worked from Asia, North America and even Australia.

Bosses at the three bodies – which employ about 6,000 staff and receive hundreds of millions of pounds of Government cash a year – have allowed employees to work abroad more than 300 times in the last three years, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Staff were allowed to spend at least 1,174 days working abroad, although the total figure is expected to be much higher given NatureScot refused to provide the full information.

Natural England, which added £100million to the bill for HS2, building a bat tunnel because the creatures are protected, was involved in 150 approvals, totalling nearly 1,000 days. 

This included 20 separate foreign stints each lasting at least ten days – the equivalent to two working weeks – with one staff member logging in for 15 days from Egypt.

An investigation by the Daily Mail has discovered taxpayer-funded staff at Natural England, NatureScot and the Rural Payments Agency have worked from the other side of the world. Pictured: stock image

It comes while hard-pressed farmers face an uncertain time thanks to Labour’s inheritance tax plans

One employee at the York-based organisation was allowed to work from Australia for seven days, while Natural England also allowed eight staff to spend at least ten days working from Slovenia. 

Another was permitted to spend ten days in France, Belgium and Germany and someone spent nine days in Japan.

The largest period of working away for a member of Natural England staff was a 28-day stint in Ireland. 

That was a drop in the ocean compared with the time a member of staff with the Rural Payments Agency, the body repeatedly castigated for the failure to pay farmers the subsidies they were owed on time. 

The body has a number of UK regional offices. Its data showed a geospatial services team member, who is listed as a senior executive officer, spent from August 5 last year to January 3 this year in Germany, accounting for 66 working days. 

Another spent 14 days in Sweden. NatureScot, based in Inverness, would only reveal there were 137 approvals granted in the last three years. 

One employee at Natural England was allowed to work from Australia for seven days

This included nine trips to the US, two to Canada and India, and a stint in Chile.

Alex Burghart, shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: ‘One wonders how much work will get done on the beach.’

A Tory spokesman said: ‘Those making peoples’ lives a misery should at least live with the consequences rather than swan off to far-flung corners of the globe.’

A Natural England spokesman said: ‘As the Government’s adviser on the natural environment, we provide practical advice, grounded in science, on how best to protect and restore our natural world.

‘On occasion, staff are required to work abroad for business reasons, including attending international conferences such as COP16.’

An RPA spokesman said: ‘Staff are required to travel overseas for official government business – helping the RPA in its role to deliver a range of services to farming and rural businesses.’

This year, the Mail revealed a senior executive at crisis-hit Windsor council was working from Kyrgyzstan.

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Quangos tasked with deciding farmers’ futures allowing staff to work from other side of the world

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