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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people, other than special advisers, have been appointed to civil service posts in his Department without open competition since 4 July 2024; what their (a) job titles and (b) salary bands are; and on what basis each was appointed.

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 requires that selection to the Civil Service must be on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition. There may be instances where a role may meet the requirements for use of a Civil Service Commission exception. As part of this, the Civil Service Commission requires that departments provide a quarterly return on their use of Exceptions at SCS2 and above. This information can be found on the CSC website.

The information requested could lead to individuals being identified therefore we are not able to provide job titles and salary bands (due to the potentially low numbers of people in each).

The information about the overall number of people who have been appointed to civil service posts in Defra without open competition will take a disproportionate amount of activity to analyse and provide.