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 time off in lieu has been taken by staff in his Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
Information relating to time taken off in lieu by staff is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Defra is committed to the wellbeing of its people and offers a flexible working policy. Employees at grades AA through to grade 6 may operate using flexi time. This allows employees to accumulate credit for time worked beyond their contracted hours. Credited hours may then be taken at a later date, subject to business need. Staff are permitted to build up and carry over 3 days each 4 week period.
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 estimate he has made of the amount of unpaid overtime worked by staff in his Department in the last 24 months.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Information relating to unpaid overtime worked by staff is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
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 people working on the Defra Unity Programme are (a) contingent labour, (b) supplier resource and (c) civil servants.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
As of 27 March 2019 the Defra Unity Programme employed:
(a) Contingent Labour = 49.40 FTE
(b) Supplier Resource 6.90 FTE
(c) Civil Servants = 3.90 FTE
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 steps his Department is taking to prevent loss of ancient woodland as a result of High Speed Two.
Answered by David Rutley
The Government has a manifesto commitment to ensure stronger protection for our ancient woodlands, and the irreplaceable nature of ancient woodlands is recognised in our 25 Year Environment Plan. Defra and its statutory bodies are working closely with HS2 Ltd. and the Department for Transport to make sure that environmental impacts resulting from HS2, including protection of woodland and loss of ancient woodland, are considered and minimised.
Natural England and the Environment Agency have service level agreements with HS2 Ltd. to advise on the development of HS2, including on avoiding, as far as practicable, loss to ancient woodlands. Natural England has also provided information to help inform HS2 Ltd.’s Ancient Woodland Strategies.
The HS2 Woodland Fund has been established for Phase 1 to support the restoration of existing plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) and the creation of new native woodland.
Natural England is also working with HS2 Ltd to identify ancient woodland within HS2’s route corridor which is not on the Ancient Woodland Inventory. Natural England and HS2 work together to minimise impacts on ancient woodland and to maximise opportunities for compensatory measures during detailed design, where unavoidable loss occurs.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that High Speed Two will not affect the protection of woodlands.
Answered by David Rutley
The Government has a manifesto commitment to ensure stronger protection for our ancient woodlands, and the irreplaceable nature of ancient woodlands is recognised in our 25 Year Environment Plan. Defra and its statutory bodies are working closely with HS2 Ltd. and the Department for Transport to make sure that environmental impacts resulting from HS2, including protection of woodland and loss of ancient woodland, are considered and minimised.
Natural England and the Environment Agency have service level agreements with HS2 Ltd. to advise on the development of HS2, including on avoiding, as far as practicable, loss to ancient woodlands. Natural England has also provided information to help inform HS2 Ltd.’s Ancient Woodland Strategies.
The HS2 Woodland Fund has been established for Phase 1 to support the restoration of existing plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) and the creation of new native woodland.
Natural England is also working with HS2 Ltd to identify ancient woodland within HS2’s route corridor which is not on the Ancient Woodland Inventory. Natural England and HS2 work together to minimise impacts on ancient woodland and to maximise opportunities for compensatory measures during detailed design, where unavoidable loss occurs.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that High Speed Two will not affect the bird nesting season.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Wild birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to intentionally kill or injure a bird. High Speed Two must demonstrate how it is ensuring that the project does not affect birds during the nesting season.
High Speed Two and its contractors have ecology technical standards, which set out how they will reduce risk if work is needed in the bird breeding season. This includes producing an appropriate working method statement in advance of the work commencing and supervision provided by the Ecological Clerk of Works.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wild-birds-protection-surveys-and-licences
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 value of contracts held by his Department with (a) Deloitte, (b) Slaughter and May and (c) Mott MacDonald is in the last two years.
Answered by George Eustice
Details of central Government contracts above the value of £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts published after 26 February 2015 can be viewed at: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.
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 civil servants from his Department have been seconded to the Department for Exiting the European Union since 1 January 2019.
Answered by David Rutley
Defra can confirm that no staff have been seconded to DExEU since 1 January 2019.
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, pursuant to the corrected Answer of 22 January 2019 to Question 206251, how many civil servants in his Department were working part or full-time on projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio in (a) June 2016 and (b) December 2018.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra provides quarterly data to The Infrastructure and Projects Authority on its Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) projects including the full time equivalent (FTE) number of public servants and contractors working on those projects.
Defra had four projects in the GMPP in 2016. These included TEAM2100, Thames Tideway Tunnel and CAP Delivery, which are no longer part of the GMPP. The only Defra project remaining on the portfolio is UnITy.
Data for Q3 (December) 2018 is not yet available so we have provided Q2 (September) data instead.
Based on information available we can confirm the following figures:
These figures do not include public sector staff from outside core project teams.
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 proportion of contracts issued by his Department and contractors include provisions to impose, as between parties to the subcontract, that any payment due from the contractor to a subcontractor under the contract is to be made no later than the end of a period of 30 days from the date on which the relevant invoice is regarded as valid and undisputed, as required by the Public Contract Regulations 2015.
Answered by George Eustice
All contracts issued by Defra contain, within the standard terms and conditions, the following clauses:
The authority shall pay all sums due to the contractor within 30 days of receipt of a valid invoice.
If a payment of an undisputed amount is not made by the authority by the due date, then the authority shall pay the contractor interest at the interest rate specified in the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
The contractor shall ensure that a provision is included in all subcontracts which requires payment to be made of all sums due to subcontractors within 30 days of the receipt of a valid invoice.