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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many officials were investigated under their Department's disciplinary processes in each of the last five years.

Defra’s casework data is held for three years from the date of case closure.

Over the last three years, 139 officials were investigated under Defra’s disciplinary process. The 139 cases are broken down into the following:

2022 = 7 disciplinary cases were raised

2023 = 33 disciplinary cases were raised

2024 = 60 disciplinary cases were raised

2025 to date = 39 disciplinary cases have been raised

The information requested for 2020 and 2021 is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.