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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what separate workstreams his Department has established to develop (a) agricultural policy and (b) operational delivery after the UK leaves the EU; what processes are in place for (i) cross-team integration and (ii) co-ordinated stakeholder engagement to deliver integrated and efficient schemes and avoid duplication and complexities for end users; and how much budget has been allocated for the development of each workstream in (A) 2019-20, (B) 2020-21, (C) 2021-22.

Defra has established the Future Farming and Countryside Programme to develop agricultural policy. Operational delivery after the UK’s departure from the EU has been organised as a Department Portfolio containing seven programmes, with a number of cross-cutting enablers providing cross-team integration.

Coordinated stakeholder engagement is provided through an Operations Centre and the running of Management Board and Portfolio Board meetings.

Defra has been allocated a budget of £410 million for 2019-2020, with no further allocations made as the spending review has not taken place yet.