Sometimes we elect clowns, but we don't elect gods or Kings.
DEFRA wrote ridiculous legislation, then when it all went wrong, all they did is a carbon copy of every inept government department, first they pretended they were not responsible and then they pretended that it was all someone else's problem to fix.
And even when they knew licensing officers were out of their depth and needed DEFRA to clarify anomalies, DEFRA either ignored them or fobbed them off with facile platitudes rather than admit their mistakes or fix them.