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 relating to the UK leaving the EU since July 2016.
Answered by David Rutley
Defra, along with other Departments, publishes spend over £25,000 on a monthly basis as part of its transparency data routine publication which is accessible here:
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 leak enquiries his Department has undertaken in the last two years.
Answered by George Eustice
The leak of any Government information or material is not acceptable and the Government takes such incidents very seriously.
It has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on security matters other than in exceptional circumstances when it is in the public interest to do so.
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 Answer of 26 April 2018 to Question 137038 on Water Companies, if he will provide that data for the period June to October 2017.
Answered by George Eustice
All of the external meetings of ministers are published in the quarterly Ministerial Transparency Returns. This includes all meetings with water companies. The last three quarterly returns, which cover the period April to December 2017 will provide details of the meetings held during the period requested June to October 2017.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-hospitality-gifts-meetings-overseas-travel
As mentioned in my Answer of 26 April 2018 to Question 137038, officials in my department meet regularly with private water companies to discuss a range of topics, including the regulation of the water industry, water and wastewater policy issues, consumer policy issues, and management of emergency incidents.
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 of his Department's invitations to tender have received no bidders in the last two years.
Answered by George Eustice
There were 11 invitations to tender published between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2018 that received no bidders.
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 apps his Department has approved for use of mobile phones issued by his Department.
Answered by George Eustice
In core Defra applications are approved and accessed through a secure, managed application catalogue.
In addition, the default applications supplied on the mobile phone are approved and managed using the Department’s security policies.
These policies are closely aligned with National Cyber Security Centre guidance.
Providing details of specific applications would be inappropriate due to national security concerns and the risk of facilitating acts against official systems by hostile actors.
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 IT systems which his Department uses are more than (a) three, (b) five and (c) eight years old; and what steps he is taking to ensure that all his Department's IT systems are updated promptly.
Answered by George Eustice
Core Defra uses 24 systems managed by its IT supplier IBM. Zero are less than 3 months old, 1 is between 5 and 8 years old; 23 are more than 8 years old.
The age of a system relates to the date that it was launched. Applications and software which are used by these systems are subject to a regular patching regime and underpinning hardware is maintained as part of a technical refresh programme.
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 meetings have taken place between private water companies and (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department in the last six months.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
There have been five meetings between private water companies and Defra Ministers in the last six months to discuss policy issues relating to regulation of the water industry and the current activities of water companies.
The Secretary of State attended the Water UK City Conference on 1 March where he told the water companies they must change behaviour to restore confidence. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/a-water-industry-that-works-for-everyone
Water company representatives have also attended at least one stakeholder event with Ministers in relation to the Government’s 25 Year Plan for the environment.
Defra officials meet regularly with private water companies to discuss a range of topics, including the regulation of the water industry, water and wastewater policy issues, consumer policy issues, and management of emergency incidents
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 assessment he has made of the recommendations directed towards the (a) Environment Agency and (b) Food Standards Agency arising from the Cabinet Office's Regulatory Futures Review, published in January 2017.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
(a) The Environment Agency is working with the Cabinet Office, Defra and other regulators on implementing the recommendations in the Regulatory Futures Review.
Progress builds on existing schemes, including:
improving cost recovery through implementing its new charging scheme from 1 April 2018;
working with business on plans to develop regulated self-assurance and earned recognition beyond the existing pig and poultry assurance scheme;
working with major stakeholders to refresh its outcome based approach to implementing regulation as set out in the 2013 Environment Agency report, ‘Regulating for people, the environment and growth’; and
working with others on the feasibility of improving data sharing between regulators through the establishment of a Regulatory Intelligence Hub.
(b) The Food Standards Agency fully recognises the need to improve and modernise the way that regulatory controls for food are delivered. It is pursuing the Cabinet Office's Regulatory Futures Review recommendations through its ‘Regulating our Future’ programme (ROF programme) launched in February 2016. It aims to ensure a sustainable approach to food safety regulation, one that brings about behaviour change to benefit consumers. The ministerial responsibility for the Food Standard Agency falls under the Department for Health and Social Care, who can be contacted for further information.
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 Answer of 22 March 2018 to Question 132216 on Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: buildings, if he will provide that data by (a) size and (b) amount spent by his Department.
Answered by George Eustice
The Core Department occupies sites on the following basis:
Occupation | Size sq.m. | Cost £ per annum |
|
|
|
Rented | 86,903 | 50,217,196 |
Owned | 159,416 | 34,801,763 |
Other types | 14,280 | 13,667,163 |
| 260,599 | 98,686,122 |
The size is provided for all buildings on a net internal floor area basis excluding the area (hectares) of land holdings.
The annual cost is the 2017/18 budget forecast for total property holding cost.
Defra has reduced annual property holdings costs from £170m in 2010 to an expected £98.6m as at March 2018.
Property size and cost data was published in the State of the Estate Report for 2015/16 on 2nd February 2017. The web link below will take the reader to the report on Gov.uk.
Size is referenced in Appendix B and Defra data is on page 47.
Cost is referenced in Appendix D and Defra data is on Page 52.
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 his Department's estate is (a) rented, (b) owned and (c) occupied through any other type of agreement.
Answered by George Eustice
The Defra group has been delivering a significant property rationalisation programme since 2010. In that time annual property running costs have reduced from £170m per year to £100m per year. The number of sites will continue to reduce, with a focus on occupying the Government Property Units Hub sites, where it meets operational delivery for the Defra.
The Core Department occupies sites on the following basis:
Rented – 97 sites
Owned – 26 sites
Occupied through other types of agreement (agreements with other Central Government Departments) - 38