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

To ask His Majesty's Government how many applications for (1) licences, (2) grants, (3) subsidies, and (4) certificates, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs carried out (a) on paper, and (b) digitally, in the last year for which records are held.

The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Defra Group is developing a digital transformation strategy which will express our collective ambition to provide joined-up digital services for citizens and businesses and to deliver environmental outcomes in a more efficient and effective way, through harnessing opportunities presented by digital data and technology.

Areas of focus for our citizen and business facing services include:

Reducing the number of paper forms people are required to complete.

Making our services joined-up, consistent, user-friendly and accessible.

Reducing manual processing to provide faster outcomes.

As part of the strategy, we will explore our common types of services i.e. licences and grants, to identify opportunities to improve and consolidate our service and technology estate.