Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what was the outturn spending by the department on communications, marketing and advertising in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
| 24–25 | 25–26 |
Total | £1,759,440 | £1,179,377 |
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what was the total cost of facility time to the department in (a) 2023-24, (b) 2024-25 and (c) 2025-26; and what was the headcount number of facility time staff in each; how many were 100% facility time; and whether funding was provided for trade union activities in each of those years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information on trade union facility time for 2023/24 and 2024/25 is publicly available through the Defra Annual Report and Accounts, on GOV.UK.
For the Defra bargaining unit in 2025/26, the total cost of trade union facility time was £119,469 and the headcount of staff claiming facility time was 23 people. Nobody was allocated 100% trade union facility time and no funding was provided for trade union activities.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the percentage of desks provided for staff is as a proportion of the total number of assigned staff in her Department's London headquarters.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It has been the practice of successive governments not to comment, on grounds of both national security and staff safety, on the physical capacity or staffing numbers for individual buildings of the government estate.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department’s (a) Permanent Secretary and (b) Ministers have had correspondence with Flint Global since July 2024.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is not routine to disclose correspondence between Ministers or Permanent Secretaries and any individual or organisation.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what written representations have Ministers received from the Mayor of Greater Manchester since July 2024.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is not routine to disclose correspondence between Ministers or Permanent Secretaries and any individual or organisation.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what specific diversity and inclusion (a) days, (b) weeks and (c) months, were recognised and marked by (i) the department and (ii) each of its agencies, in the calendar year 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra and its arm's-length bodies mark a range of external awareness days, weeks and months throughout the year. This provides the opportunity to raise awareness of different aspects of diversity and inclusion, and to support staff networks and wider engagement on these issues with our people.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 June 2026 to Question 3763 and with reference to the Answer of of 19 January 2026 to Question 104195 on Government Communication Service: Staff, how many headcount staff in each of the department’s Arm’s Length Bodies are (a) members of the Government Communication Network and (b) are embedded communicators who are not counted as members of the Government Communication Network.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All communicators are members of the Government Communication Service.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2026 to Question 4161, on Government departments: marketing, how much has been spent on branded goods and merchandise by each of her Department's Arm’s Length Bodies since the Government Chief Commercial Officer letter was sent; on what items, and at what cost.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any internship schemes managed by (a) her Department and (b) each of its Arm’s Length Bodies are restricted to applicants on the basis of (i) ethnicity, (ii) social class and (iii) both.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Neither Defra nor any Defra group Arm’s Length Bodies manage internship schemes with such restrictions.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what is the percentage office workplace attendance requirement in each of the department’s offices, broken down by location; and whether attendance statistics are collated for each of those individual offices.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra wants thriving workplaces that benefit everyone and that meet the needs of our customers and partners. The department are committed to offering staff hybrid working to enable choice in where colleagues work, within a framework.
Recognising the value of coming together, like many other organisations across the Civil Service, staff are expected to attend workplaces for at least 60% of their working time (averaged over a 4-week period).
Attendance statistics are collated for departmental offices and are provided to senior management teams for the purposes of monitoring compliance with workplace attendance expectations.
This applies to employees in Defra, RPA, APHA & VMD, including any agency workers and contractors working alongside Defra.