Catalogue description Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Data Processing Unit and successors: Registered Files, Data Processing and Payments (PU, DPU and DP Series)

The work of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when it was formed in 1954 was in many respects well suited to the developing uses of computers. The calculation and payment of grants and subsidies, the compilation and analysis of the annual agricultural census were tasks especially appropriate for computerisation, as was the weekly and monthly payment of staff wages. The bulk of this work was the responsibility of the Finance Department, and the Data Processing Unit, established in 1958, was therefore made the responsibility of the Accountant General. Its tasks, initially, were four-fold: to calculate and pay the Fatstock Guarantee Payment and the Fertiliser Subsidy to eligible farmers and growers; to calculate and pay various agricultural production grants (e.g. the Ploughing Grant or the Calf Rearing Subsidy) and to pay compensation for animals slaughtered for foot-and-mouth disease; to pay the wages and salaries of the 13,000 staff employed by the ministry at the time; and the compilation and analysis of agricultural census data. In 1961 the Unit became a separate Data Processing Division, still within the Accountant General's Department, and continued to take on new functions.

In 1963, the division was amalgamated with the Finance Department's Payments Unit, with which it had previously worked in close co-operation, to form the Appropriation Accounts and Data Processing Division. This division provided a central accounting and computing facility for the whole ministry, and from 1979 until 1988 it (and its successor) also acted as a computer bureau for the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce and the agricultural departments of the Welsh Office. The swiftly developing pace of technological change made this hybrid arrangement less and less appropriate, as the uses for computers spread well outside the financial and statistical areas of the ministry's work. In 1982, appropriation accounts business was transferred to Finance Division I, and two new divisions were created in the Management Services and Information Department. The Computer Services Division was responsible for central accounting operations and acted as a computer unit for the rest of the ministry, and continued to provide bureau services for the Welsh Office and the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce. The Information Technology and Procedures Division produced policy on computers and the procurement of computers and related hard and software, administered office technology and communications, and also undertook O & M studies, administered forms design and control and, briefly, ran the staff suggestion scheme. Its functions grew over time, and by 1987 the division was conducting general business analysis for the ministry using IT and O & M structured analysis methods, had assumed the management of the ministry's information systems strategy and policy, and undertook capacity planning.

In 1988, an Information Technology Directorate was formed within the department, and the existing two divisions were divided into four. The Planning Division effectively succeeded the Information Technology and Procedures Division, but without the systems analysis functions. These passed to a Development Division, which undertook systems analysis and design, software development, system implementation and maintenance of existing mainframe systems. A Services Division was responsible for computer operations, programme design, the development of voice and data communications, and also undertook central data preparation and capture for the ministry. Finally, an Information Centre Division (later the Infocentre Division) dealt with small and stand alone computers, including planning, implementation and support of office systems, and developing training strategies for end users and IT staff. In 1991 the whole IT Directorate was transferred to the Chief Scientist's Group, and in 1995 it was moved again to form part of the Regional Services and Agencies Group. The division organisation was revised at the same time and three new divisions were created in place of the four formed in 1988. An Applications Division dealt with business and systems analysis, software development, implementation and other IT systems in MAFF; an Infrastructure Division dealt with telecommunications, networks and other aspects of the ministry's IT network; and a Strategies Division dealt with IT planning and co-ordination and other strategic matters.