Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 29 January 2026.
Neil Hudson
Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the exchequer on the potential merits of providing further funding for its planned National Biosecurity Centre to meet the required level of funding specified in the National Audit Office's Improving the UK’s science capability for managing animal diseases Report in 2022.
Angela Eagle
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Defra received the funding it requested in the current Spending Review to 2029-30 for the next stage of the National Biosecurity Centre, Weybridge Programme. Programme delivery is on track and in line with Government Project Delivery Functional Standards. Further funding in future Spending Reviews will be requested to secure operational delivery of the new facility by 2034.
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The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
