Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of cash losses incurred by his Department arising from (a) theft, (b) fraud, (c) arson, (d) sabotage and (e) gross carelessness in the last 12 months.

Answered by Mark Spencer

Estimates and actual losses for 2023-24 are currently in the process of being finalised and will be published in our Annual Report and Accounts. Losses from theft and fraud are expected to be in the region of losses incurred in previous years. The figures for 2021-22 and 2022-23 may be found in the following reports: Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 and Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23. The level of detected fraud across Defra in 2021-22 may also be found in the cross-Government Fraud Landscape Report. We are unable to provide any estimates regarding arson, sabotage and gross carelessness as our losses data is aggregated and it is not possible to easily report this level of detail.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of projects that have been written off within his Department in each year since 2010.

Answered by Mark Spencer

Prior to preparing to leave the EU Defra had no major projects, with outcome delivery led through its Arm’s Length bodies and executive agencies. Defra now manages a portfolio of priority projects spanning policy to delivery which are critical to delivering our outcomes to ‘improve the environment, deliver net zero, reduce the likelihood and impact of flooding, increase the sustainability, productivity and resilience of the agriculture, fishing, food and drink sectors, enhance biosecurity at the border and raise animal welfare standards’. All losses are reported in our Annual Reports and Accounts but we are unable to provide a breakdown of losses specifically relating to ‘writing off projects’ since our reporting data for losses is not disaggregated in this manner.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the overspend on procurement within his Department in each year since 2010.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost to the public purse has been of contracts cancelled by his Department since 2010.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of administrative errors made by his Department in each year since 2010.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Defra reports losses from error to the Public Sector Fraud Authority. We are unable to provide a breakdown of losses from administrative errors only – errors we report consist of aggregated losses arising from unintentional events, processing errors and official government errors. Data on fraud (including error) has only been published since 2017 and may be found in the Cross Government fraud landscape reports here: Cross-government fraud landscape annual report 2017, Cross-government fraud landscape annual report 2018 , Cross-government fraud landscape annual report 2019, Executive-Summary-Fraud-Landscape-Bulletin 2019-20, Cross-Government Fraud Landscape Report 2021-2022.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of accidental damage to equipment made by his Department in each year since 2010.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of mobile phone contracts for (a) Ministers and (b) staff in his Department since 2010.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The attached table contains mobile phone contract costs for the last three financial years for staff in core Defra. Information prior to 2021-2022 is not held.

Ministers’ costs are also included in the core Defra all users totals.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of his Department's use of (a) marketing businesses and (b) communications agencies in each year since 2010.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The information requested is not available as it is not possible to split the costs of the department’s use of marketing businesses and communications agencies from the total cost of spend on campaigns.

Such information as is available is in the attached table. These figures are the total cost of each campaign for the financial years 2015/16 to 2023/24. This includes any spend with marketing businesses and communications agencies, as well as media and advertising costs, materials and marketing collateral, and events. Information prior to 2015/16 is not available.

These figures do not include departmental resource or spend as part of the GREAT Food & Drink campaign which is jointly funded with Cabinet Office.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of the use of private consultants by his Department in the last 12 months.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The department publishes expenditure on consultants in the annual report and accounts. The most recently published period is 2022-23 when the core department spent £23.7 million (page 108).

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost to the public purse was of government procurement card spending by his Department in each year since 2010.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The table below sets out total expenditure using government procurement cards for the given financial years. Information relating to 2010 to 2016 is not readily available.

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 transparency data entitled Defra: spending over £25,000, February 2024, published on 13 May 2024, what the purpose of Project Hazel is; and how much his Department has spent on Project Hazel since 2020.

Answered by Mark Spencer

Project Hazel refers to Capita’s share divestment from Fera Science Ltd, a joint venture with Defra. Defra spent £1.57 million on Project Hazel from 2020.