To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which energy provider supplies energy to their Department; how much carbon dioxide was emitted by their Department in the latest period for which figures are available; whether the criteria their Department uses to select an energy supplier include how environmentally friendly that supplier is; and what recent steps their Department has taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its energy use.

Defra uses the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) for both electricity and gas as mandated by Cabinet Office.

Defra use a REGO backed green electricity tariff from EDF to minimise the environmental impact of its electricity use.

The department emitted 51,099t CO2e in 2021-22. This is a reduction of 32% or 24,000t since 2017/18 through a combination of estate rationalisation and energy efficiency initiatives.

To reduce this amount further we are:

• looking to reduce the size of our estate in line with our property strategy;
• working with the Government Property Agency to install low carbon initiatives at six properties that we run on their behalf;
• working with the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to replace end of life gas boilers with air source heat pumps;
• carrying out sustainability surveys on our properties to produce a new programme to decarbonise our buildings; and
• ensuring sustainability is built into our major projects such as the Science Capability in Animal Health programme.