Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022; and what the name is of each consultancy contracted.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The provisional consultancy spend for 2021-22 is £26.970m for the Core Department and Agencies.
The department’s spend on consultancy is published each year in the Annual Report and Accounts.
2020-21
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defras-annual-report-and-accounts-2020-to-2021 (page 100)
2019-20
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defras-annual-report-and-accounts-2019-to-2020 (page 87)
The names of consultancies contracted are listed below
A LUCK ASSOCIATES |
Actica Consulting Ltd |
Aether Ltd |
ALCHEMMY CONSULTING LTD |
Alexander Mann Solutions LTD |
Amber Employment Services Ltd |
Amec Foster Wheeler |
ARCADIS CONSULTING UK LTD |
Arpexas (Scotland) Ltd |
Bankserve |
Beamans Ltd |
Biopharma Consulting (BPC) |
BLUE BORDER LTD |
Broadhead Global Ltd |
Business Solutions Limited |
Capita |
Change Associates Ltd |
Commercial Consultancy Ltd |
Costain Ltd |
CURRIE and BROWN UK LTD |
Daisy Communications Limited |
Deloitte LLP |
Dirac Delta Solutions Ltd |
Dr Gabriele Hesselbein |
Dr Marion Simmons |
Dr Vanessa Carn |
DTA ECOLOGY LTD |
EBC CONSULTING LTD |
ENGINEERING SAFETY CONSULTANTS LTD |
Eric Crutcher |
Ernst & Young LLP (EY) |
FINYX CONSULTING LTD |
FIRST RESPONSE TRAINING and CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD |
Frontier Economics Ltd |
G2 Recruitment Solutions |
Government Legal Department |
Health Management Ltd |
Ingentium Ltd |
IVDEOLOGY LTD |
J Weeks |
JACOBS UK LTD |
John Points |
Jones P Consulting Ltd |
JSA Services Ltd t/a Workwell |
Julie Gibson |
Keep IT Simple |
KLIFOVET AG |
KPMG |
KPMG Safi Al Mutawa & Partners |
L T S INTERNATIONAL LTD |
Learning Light |
Local Partnerships LLP |
Lockhart-Garratt |
Louisa Wood |
LSSC Ltd |
M Botony |
Management and Risk Solutions Ltd |
MCKINSEY & CO INC UNITED KINGDOM |
Met Office |
Methods Business Digital Technology |
METHODS CONSULTING LTD |
Mo Gannon & Associates Ltd |
Modality Systems Ltd |
Morgan Langley |
Network Rail |
Nibiru Ltd |
PA CONSULTING SERVICES LTD |
Park Health & Safety Partnership LLP |
Perfect Circle JV Ltd |
Philippe Sabot Consultant (PSC) |
PJM-HS CONSULTING LTD |
PKM Digital Ltd |
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP |
Proxima |
PUBLIC DIGITAL LTD |
RADMAN ASSOCIATES LTD |
Rare Little Beastie Ltd |
RBS |
REED |
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE LTD |
Richard Parker |
ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. |
RSK GROUP PLC |
Seed Science |
SGS UK Ltd |
Silversands Ltd |
Stentiford, Grant |
THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP UK LLP |
The Neoteric Tech Company Ltd |
The Research Box Ltd |
Triple G Consulting Ltd |
University Of Liverpool |
VETERINARY VACCINES CONS LTD |
Whiteball Ltd |
WILLS TOWERS WATSON LTD |
WRAP |
WSP GLOBAL |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much their Department has spent on air travel for (a) Ministers and (b) officials in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The table below shows the amount spent on commercial air travel for Ministers and officials for calendar years 2020, 2021 and 2022, based on booking date.
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Ministers | £508.55 | £1,354.13 | £34,889.88 |
Officials | £95,931.59 | £35,470.98 | £286,116.75 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much their Department and its associated agencies spent on legal disputes in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Defra and its associated executive agencies1 have incurred the following costs on Litigation for the calendar years 2020 to 2022 (up to 30/6/22):
Amount (£m)2 | Calendar Year |
0.93m | 2020 |
1.47m | 2021 |
0.61m | 2022 |
1: Includes the Animal and Plant Health Agency; the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science; Rural Payments Agency and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
2: Source data from the Government Legal Department’s (GLD) electronic systems as at 8 July 2022. These figures represent the costs charged by the litigation team in GLD. It does not include any costs awarded against Defra or damages.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much their Department has spent on advertising in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The attached table outlines the Department spend on advertising in the years 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total value has been of contracts held by their Department with (a) G4S, (b) Serco and (c) Capita in each year since 2020.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
There have been two contracts held by the department with Capita since 2020, with a total value of £118,000. There have been no other contracts held since 2020 with G4S or Serco.
Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000, and £25,000 in the wider public sector, are published on Contracts Finder.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many contracts that are worth (a) between £1 million and £3 million and (b) over £3 million their (i) Department and (ii) Department’s agencies and non-departmental public bodies (A) have agreed since 2010 and (B) are due to agree within the next 12 months; how much their Department has spent on monitoring each contract in each year since 2010; and how many officials have been working on that monitoring in each year since 2010.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000, and £25,000 in the wider public sector, are published on Contracts Finder. As Contracts Finder was implemented in 2016, not all records before this time are held centrally.
Information on contracts with start dates within the next 12 months has been provided in the attached spreadsheet, with contracts between £1m and £3m, and £3m and over, on separate tabs. The Customer Lead Department column has been highlighted for ease of reference.
There are 49 contracts between £1m and £3m and 92 contracts £3m and over with contract start dates within the next 12 months.
Once contracts are let they are “owned” by the relevant business area Senior Responsible Officer and managed within the appropriate team. Therefore, we cannot confirm the cost or resource invested in managing the contracts.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the pay ratio was between the highest paid member of staff in his Department and the lowest in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The pay ratio between the highest paid member of staff and the lowest in Defra was 9:1 in 2020 and 8.88:1 in 2021. Pay awards for 2022 have not yet been implemented in Defra.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Total expenditure on hospitality by the Core Department is set out in the table below.
Financial Year | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 Provisional |
Expenditure | £293,052 | -£4,312 | £92,255 |
The overall credit for 2020-21 is primarily due to one large credit for £18,000 in April 2020.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the covid-19 outbreak, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with specific dietary needs as a result of a medical condition can obtain the food they need from supermarkets.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Government has well-established ways of working with the food industry during disruption to supply situations. We are aware of the additional availability issues faced by people who have particular dietary requirements and are working with the food industry to ensure that everybody is able to get the food that they need. We will continue to work closely with the industry over the coming days and months.
Our retailers already have highly resilient supply chains and they are working around the clock to adapt quickly to these changes in demands. Food supply into and across the UK is resilient.
To help industry respond to this unprecedented demand we have introduced new measures to keep food supply flowing. We have issued guidance to local authorities to allow extended delivery hours to supermarkets so that shelves can be filled up more quickly, and we have implemented extensions to drivers’ hours. We are also temporarily relaxing certain elements of competition law to ensure retailers are able to collaborate effectively in the national interest.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which public appointments she is responsible for.
Answered by George Eustice
The public appointments that the department is responsible for making are set out in the Schedule to the Public Appointments Order in Council 2019. https://publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-Public-Appointments-Order-In-Council.pdf