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

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the announcement on 25 February that they will invest £208 million in a new national biosecurity centre, whether those funds were previously committed to go directly to farmers as payments for 'public goods'.

The National Biosecurity Centre is the new name for the facility delivered at APHA Weybridge, previously known as the Science Capability in Animal Health programme. This funding has not been previously committed to other purposes.