Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her Department's publication of electronic purchasing card spending over £500 for February 2021, (a) how many mugs were purchased by Natural England from We Brand It on 15 February 2021, and (b) what branding was printed on those mugs.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Natural England Evidence Services Team issued team members with a mug as part of a reward and recognition award and a wellbeing morale boost recognising their hard work and commitment during lockdown. 170 mugs were ordered, with NE branding and a picture of St. Cwyfan’s Church, Anglesey which was the winning photo on a team wellbeing competition during lockdown.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2022 to Question 31794 on Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution, how many people working in her Department’s executive agencies held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against her Department's budget as of 31 March 2022.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The number of electronic purchasing card holders in each of Defra’s executive agencies is as follows.
Animal and Plant Health Agency: 50
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science: 266
Rural Payments Agency: 12
Veterinary Medicines Directorate: 12
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what their Department spent in 2021 on purchasing goods and services with a value of less than £500 on a government procurement card.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The department spent £199,762 in 2021 on purchasing goods and services with a value of less than £500 on a government procurement card. This equates to 2,486 transactions.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she will to respond to Questions 97494 and 97595 tabled on 28 November 2022 by the Rt hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Answers are being prepared and will be published shortly.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what was the total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to staff working for his Department as performance-related bonuses in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The total spend for non-cash vouchers for Defra in 2021-22 was £130,040. Prior to this, Defra did not use non-cash vouchers as performance-related bonuses or otherwise.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what total amount of money has been paid out by her Department in severance payments for former (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers since 29 June 2022; how much of that money has subsequently been repaid to her Department as a result of individuals (A) rejecting the payment or (B) returning to new roles; and in how many cases where individuals were in post for (I) 0-3 months, (II) 3-6 months, (III) 6-12 months and (IV) more than 12 months has their full severance payment been retained as of 2 November 2022.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The provision of severance payments for Ministers is set out in legislation. Details of the severance payments made to Ministers when leaving office are published in departments' annual reports and accounts.
Similarly, the provision of severance payments for special advisers is set out in the Model Contract, which is available on gov.uk, including provisions for repayment of severance if reappointed. The cost of severance payments made to special advisers across government is published annually by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department has spent on staff activity related to the review of retained EU laws within her Department's areas of responsibility since 1 September 2021; and what funding her Department has allocated for these purposes for the rest of the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Information is not held centrally on the staff activity related to the review of retained EU law or the passage of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill in financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The Retained EU law dashboard was made by the Retained EU Law team, in conjunction with the Government Strategic Management Office and is hosted on Tableau Public, which is a free platform for hosting public dashboards. The dashboard has been updated at no additional cost.
Defra has undertaken a review of its REUL during 2022. Prior to EU Exit, roughly 80% of Defra's policy areas were governed by EU law. We have already reformed REUL in key areas through flagship legislation such as the Environment Act, Fisheries Act and Agriculture Act. Defra is in the process of analysing its REUL stock and determining what should be preserved as part of domestic law, as well as REUL that should be repealed, or amended. This process will inform our approach to resourcing.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he expects by 24 October 2022 to complete the process of awarding protected geographical indication status to the 39 Japanese food and drink products on which his Department conducted consultation between 21 December 2021 and 21 February 2022.
Answered by Scott Mann
As part of the Japan-United Kingdom Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), Japan and the United Kingdom agreed to consider the protection of a significant further number of each other’s geographical indications (GIs). Both parties need to satisfactorily complete their own processes before confirming that the products are eligible for registration as GIs within their scheme. These processes are running concurrently. The intention is to protect the first tranche of Japanese GIs in Great Britain and British GIs in Japan on the same date once these processes are complete.
In addition to having examined Japan’s GIs, the United Kingdom has been supporting Japan to process the British GIs as quickly as possible. We look forward to the completion of this process and are prepared to jointly announce the protection of the first tranche of GIs. However, we cannot confirm that the announcement will be made by 24th October 2022.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many payments were fraudulently charged to his Department’s budget using electronic purchasing cards in the financial years (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22; and what the total value was of fraudulent payments (i) made and (ii) recovered in each of those years.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The following table sets out the value and volume of fraudulent transactions identified on the department’s procurement cards in each of the years shown. In every case the monies were recovered.
Financial Year | Value (£) | Number of Transactions |
2019/20 | 1062 | 3 |
2020/21 | 0 | 0 |
2021/22 | 3766 | 1 |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on how many occasions the provision of mandatory training for his Departmental staff regarding their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 has been cited by his Department as a defence against Section 109 proceedings since the commencement of that Act.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra requires all staff to complete ‘Inclusion in the Civil Service’ training on the Civil Service Learning website.
Although the statutory defence contained in s109(4) Equality Act 2010 is therefore available for Defra to plead in cases where this is appropriate, we do not collate data about the defence that has been put forward in each discrimination case.