Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much (a) staff time and (b) other resource her Department allocated to work to include the development of more sustainable protein sources for human diets as an unquantified proposal or policy in its Carbon Budget delivery plan published in March 2023.

We are supporting research and development for climate smart farming through Defra’s £270 million Farming Innovation Programme (FIP), working in partnership with UK Research and Innovation to deliver research to address land use and achieving net zero. This includes £12.5 million R&D investment focused on developing innovative solutions for sustainable farm-based protein production.

Innovate UK is currently delivering support to this sector of the industry via the Novel Low Emission Food Production Systems (£16 million) and the Better Food for All (£20 million) calls.

We do not keep data on the staff time spent on these activities.