Written question asked by Bill Wiggin (Conservative) on Wednesday, 25 October 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 October 2006. It was answered by Ian Pearson (Labour) on Monday, 6 November 2006 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Environment Agency

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether he has commissioned work to compare the costs of the Environment Agency with those of equivalent organisations in other European countries.

Answer: The Secretary of State has not commissioned work to compare the costs of the Environment Agency (EA) with those of equivalent organisations in other European countries. The structures, remits and funding (through charging income or general taxation) of equivalent organisations in other countries differ so much as to make such a comparison uninformative.The EA does liaise with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to benchmark its charging schemes and, where a true comparison is possible, the level of costs have been shown to be broadly comparable.

Secondary information