To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on how many occasions in the last 12 months Ministers in his Department have used their discretion to rule that a parliamentary question for written answer should be answered because it would be in the public interest to do so, even though to do so would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold of £700. (249139)

The Department strives to answer all parliamentary questions with the relevant information as accurately and as concisely as possible having regard to the disproportionate cost threshold. The Department does not keep records of occasions on which Ministers have used their discretion to overrule the application of the cost threshold.