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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current permanent establishment of staff in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; and what was the previous establishment for each of the last five years.

The headcount and FTE breakdown as at 31 December for each year is shown in the table below.

This answer covers core Defra only. The figures in the table are not comparable year to year, as they reflect the movement of staff into core Defra from other organisations in the Defra group. For example, as part of the corporate services transformation project around 1000 staff have joined core Defra from other organisations in the Defra group in the last 12 months. Changes from year to year therefore cannot be taken as net changes to staff numbers overall.

We continue to keep our resourcing plans under review, focusing both on recruitment and increasing the capability of new and existing staff.