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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what was the total cost of facility time to the department in (a) 2023-24, (b) 2024-25 and (c) 2025-26; and what was the headcount number of facility time staff in each; how many were 100% facility time; and whether funding was provided for trade union activities in each of those years.

The information on trade union facility time for 2023/24 and 2024/25 is publicly available through the Defra Annual Report and Accounts, on GOV.UK.

For the Defra bargaining unit in 2025/26, the total cost of trade union facility time was £119,469 and the headcount of staff claiming facility time was 23 people. Nobody was allocated 100% trade union facility time and no funding was provided for trade union activities.