Departmental Research
Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether research projects into agriculture were affected by his Department's recent budget cuts; and if he will make a statement.
Ben Bradshaw (Minister of State (Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Exeter, Labour)
No ongoing agricultural research projects have been affected by recent budgetary reductions.
DEFRA allocated over £150 million to research and development (R and D) in 2006-07, reflecting the value the Department places on research. As such while R and D budgets have been assessed as part of the wider departmental budgetary changes, they have been comparatively well-protected. For example, through managing the start dates of planned new work, savings of around 5 per cent. have been realised for 2006-07 from the Sustainable Farming and Food R and D Programme.