To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people in his Department and its predecessors earned a salary over £100,000 in each year since 1997. (167191)

Details of the number of people in the Department who have been paid a salary of £100,000 or more, since 2002, are given in the following table. Data prior to 2002 are not centrally held and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

The information covers people in core-DEFRA and the following DEFRA Executive Agencies: Animal Health, Pesticides Safety Directorate, Veterinary Medicines Directorate, Marine Fisheries Agency, Government Decontamination Service, Rural Payments Agency, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Central Science Laboratory and Centre for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science.