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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to the public purse of the proposal to move the herbarium from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew to Reading.

The proposal to move the herbarium from the site at Kew to Reading is at a very early stage and so an estimate of the potential cost has not yet been made by Defra. Such an estimate will be developed at the appropriate stage and in line with the usual processes.