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 7 June to Question 1390 on Environment Agency: Finance, whether she has had discussions with trade union representatives on Environment Agency funding and enforcement capacity.

My Rt Hon Friend the Environment Secretary has not engaged directly with the Environment Agency’s (EA) recognised trade unions. The EA has an established infrastructure in place to ensure it engages on a regular basis with its collective recognised trade unions (GMB, Unison, Unite and Prospect). The EA provides regular updates on finance and funding impacts as well as engaging on changes to ways of working, policies and impacts to its staff.

The EA will always seek to deliver the best outcomes for people and the environment and prioritise its enforcement work in line with the funding available, focusing on the cases that pose the greatest threat, risk and harm to the environment and communities.