Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many press and public relations staff are employed by her Department; how many of those employees are paid more than (a) £50,000 and (b) £100,000; and what the total expenditure was on press and public relations by her Department in the most recent year for which figures are available.

George Eustice

Defra is in the midst of a transformation programme which is yielding significant reductions in communication staff.Defra currently employs 41 full time staff to deliver press and public relations. Nine staff are paid over £50,000 per annum. No staff are paid over £100,000 per annum.

Our controls on communication spending have saved over £1million in 2015/16. The total committed expenditure for Defra’s press and public relations programme for 2015/16 is £46,761.