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 how many staff his Department will employ by the time the UK leaves the EU, and what change there has been in that estimate since the last estimate made before June 2016.

Over 80% of Defra’s agenda is affected by the UK’s departure from the European Union and as a result, many roles across the Defra group are now supporting EU exit-related work, either directly or indirectly. We continue to keep our resourcing plans under review, focusing both on recruitment and increasing the capability of new and existing staff.

Since June 2016, Defra has recruited over 550 additional staff to support our comprehensive programme of work to prepare for leaving the EU. The majority of these new staff are employed in the central department where they are working on a range of projects identified to enable a successful withdrawal from the EU.