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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many posts there are for (a) press, (b) media and (c) other communications staff in his Department; and what the salary band is for each post.

Defra Group Communications is the first shared service communications team in Whitehall, merging 6 geographically dispersed communications teams from the core department and Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs). Alongside the department, the team works to the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Forestry Commission and Rural Payments Agency.

The teams work across all communications disciplines in support of the policy and operational priorities including a frontline team across the country providing a 24-hour communications response to incidents, working with local media and partners to give communities timely information they need to take action and prepare. This includes local and national media, planning, stakeholder engagement, digital communications and internal.

Defra Group Communications staff work in an agile way to 6 organisations, it is not possible to provide granular full-time equivalent figures for each part of the group.

The communications team employs professionals across all Civil Service grades, you can find more details on the salaries across Civil Service grades here - Civil Service Grades Explained - Defra Jobs - UK Government.