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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the (a) 20 highest and (b) 20 lowest value contracts awarded by his Department were in each financial year since 2009-10.

The 20 highest and 20 lowest value contracts awarded by Defra for the respective financial years are set out in the table attached.

We are unable to provide data for 2009/10 as we did not have a central contracts management system in place prior to April 2010.

The lowest value for contracts shown here is £10,000. Any purchasing below that level is made under standard purchase order terms and conditions rather than through a specific contract. These are not recorded on our central system.

The data does not included contracts for research and development which are not held centrally and could only be included at disproportionate cost.