To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much funding his Department had provided to each regional improvement and efficiency partnership on the latest date for which information is available; and for what projects such funding was allocated. (284141)

In 2008-09, DEFRA and the Department for Communities and Local Government provided £4 million to Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships (RIEPs) for the delivery of a Climate Change Best Practice Programme. Responsibility for this programme passed from DEFRA to the Department for Energy and Climate Change on its creation in October 2008.

DEFRA provided a further £500,000 in 2008-09 and 2009-10 to support the RIEPs work on waste. The funding was paid to Improvement and Efficiency South East, which leads the RIEPs’ national work in this area, to support local authorities develop partnership working on waste. This can help promote improvements to service delivery and realise efficiencies.