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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether funding for the Alpha phase of the BNG metric digitisation programme was based on the Equal Experts Discovery Report on error rates in BNG metric submissions.

Funding for the Alpha phase of the BNG metric digitisation project followed completion of the Discovery phase, which is an early, exploratory stage in the Government Digital Service lifecycle. Decisions to progress from Discovery to Alpha, and to commit funding, are based on the overall findings of Discovery, including the nature of the problem to be addressed, user needs, strategic alignment and the potential value of a digital solution. While Discovery work considered a range of evidence, including issues affecting BNG metric submissions, the decision to fund Alpha was not based on any single factor.