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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff worked for the Environment Agency in each year between 2015 and 2022; and what the average vacancy rate was in the same period.

The average number of full-time equivalent staff employed during each year can be found in the attached table.

The Environment Agency cannot provide information on vacancy rate as its Single Operating Platform system does not hold individual vacancy information (this is the same for the whole of Defra).