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 paragraph 88 of the policy paper entitled UK Government Resilience Action Plan, published on 14 July 2025, how many meetings have been attended by civil servants within their Department in relation to the Home Defence Programme; which directorate in the Department owns the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme; and what the job title is of the civil servant leading and cohering the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme.

The Resilience Action Plan sets out the Government’s strategic approach to how we will strengthen our domestic resilience and invest to protect the nation. Defra officials regularly attend meetings to discuss the implementation of the Resilience Action Plan as well as matters of national security and defence.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is actively contributing to this work with a team coordinating the department’s planning for home defence. This is overseen by the Director for Ministerial, Growth & Resilience, currently SRO for the Home Defence Programme.