Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many government procurement cards were held by staff within (a) his core Department and (b) executive agencies of his Department at the end of calendar years (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The table below sets out the number of cardholders at the end of each calendar year, by organisation.
| 2022 | 2023 |
Core Department | 235 | 292 |
Animal and Plant Health Agency | 64 | 63 |
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science | 266 | 357 |
Rural Payments Agency | 11 | 11 |
Veterinary Medicines Directorate | 15 | 14 |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department spent on government procurement card purchases (a) above and (b) below £500 net of refunded payments in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
(a) Published departmental transaction level data on government procurement
card (GPC) purchases for transactions over £500 in accordance with policy are at the following link:
The guiding policy setting out the requirement to publish GPC transactions over £500 remains in place. Guidance is available to all government departments on gov.uk at the following link:
The policy clearly sets out the standard that departments must publish to which covers
transaction date, transaction reference, merchant name and the amount spent.
(b) The following table sets out the core department’s expenditure using government procurement cards for transactions under £500 for each of the calendar years stated.
2022 | 2023 | |
Value of Transactions under £500 | £356,046 | £388,007 |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Minister without Portfolio's article of 12 May 2024 in The Sunday Telegraph, when the Royal Botanic Gardens is expected to terminate its contract with Red Snapper Ltd., procurement reference BIP829617988; and whether a notice period will be required under the provisions of that contract.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is an operationally independent arm’s length body (ALB). Civil Service EDI expenditure guidance does not extend to organisations outside the Civil Service or ALBs not employing Civil Servants.
The contract with Red Snapper Ltd is due to expire on 21 February 2025.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the ministerial department figures in his Department's workforce management information data for February and March 2023, for what reason the payroll staff numbers are different between the two months but the payroll staff costs are identical.
Answered by Mark Spencer
March 2023 payroll costs were not available in time for inclusion in the March 2023 monthly workforce management information update, so February 2023 data was re-used as an estimate to be revised when the data had been received.
Payroll staff costs for March 2023 have now been revised in the Defra workforce management information collection on GOV.UK to reflect the correct payroll staff costs.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many government procurement cards were held by people to make purchases against his Department’s budget as of (a) 31 December 2022, (b) 31 March 2023 and (c) 31 December 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The following table sets out the number of procurement cardholders on each given date.
Date | Cardholders |
31 December 2022 | 237 |
31 March 2023 | 254 |
31 December 2023 | 304 |
Procurement cards assist with the reduction in procurement bureaucracy, boost efficiency, support the Government’s prompt payment initiative for small and medium businesses, and help maintain cash flow to suppliers.
Procurement cards are used as defined by the departmental procurement acquisition model, agreed by procurement and finance colleagues.
Controls are in place that limit purchase types and values in line with individual departmental controls.
Procurement cards are held by officials, not Ministers or Special Advisers.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many purchases with a value of less than £500 were made against his Department’s budget using a Government procurement card (a) in calendar year 2022 and (b) from 1 January to 31 October 2023; and what was the total cost of those purchases.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The table below sets out the number of purchases made valued at under £500 using a Government procurement card for the given time periods.
Time Period | Volume of Transactions | Value of Transactions |
2022 | 3853 | £355,245 |
1 January to 31 October 2023 | 3798 | £336,077 |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to page 116 of the Annual Report and Accounts of the Environment Agency for 2022-23 published on 26 October 2023, what the purpose of the contract that has been subject to an adjudication process was; with which contractor that contract was agreed; and what the status is of that contract as of 7 November 2023.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The accounts disclosed that there was an adjudication, however this adjudication dealt with preliminary issues in the commercial dispute and the dispute itself remains live. As the dispute remains live it would be inappropriate to provide further comment since this could adversely affect the course of justice, and potentially prejudice the Environment Agency’s position in the dispute.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to Cabinet Office statistics on Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023, published on 31 October 2023, how many permanent civil servants excluding agencies worked for her Department on 31 March (a) 2011, (b) 2016 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Headcount of civil servants who worked for the Department on 31 March of 2011, 2016 and 2020 can be found in the ONS Public Sector Employment Publication,
On 2 October 2023, the Chancellor announced an immediate cap on civil servant headcount across Whitehall to stop any further expansion, increase efficiencies and boost productivity.
The Civil Service grew in size to manage the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the illegal war in Ukraine, but it is right that we reduce the size of the Civil Service over time as we drive up productivity and deliver efficiencies.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
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 30 December 2022 to Question 97595, what was the total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to staff working for her core Department as performance-related bonuses in 2022-23.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Bonuses paid out as non-cash vouchers is a standard practice across Government.
Attracting, retaining and motivating highly skilled individuals is essential for the Civil Service to deliver for the British people. This is why pay must be fair and competitive as well as affordable to the taxpayer. Performance-related bonuses and vouchers are a key part of this.
The Edenred contract came into effect in 2017 which allows departments access to non-cash vouchers for staff.
The total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to staff working for the core Department as performance-related bonuses in the 2022-23 financial year is £716,250.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to her Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The department has no record of any ministerial boxes being lost or going missing between 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023 nor have any boxes had security features removed for personal use. It is a long standing convention under successive administrations that Ministers may pay to retain boxes as a memento of their time in their role. Alternatively former Ministers are able to purchase new boxes from the relevant provider as a memento.