Government response to the Independent Rural Proofing Implementation Review

This document sets out the actions government will take to make sure that the interests of rural communities and businesses are taken into account in our policies – we call this ‘rural proofing’.

The document is a response to the independent review which the previous government commissioned, to look at how effective rural proofing had been, and in particular how well government departments had used the package of rural proofing support information issued by Defra in July 2013. The review aimed to identify how well departments were designing their policies in order to deliver them in rural areas.

The review was published in January 2015 and included a number of recommendations. The government response explains what we will do in response to each of the recommendations.