To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 26 February (WA 107–08), how many staff work in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Shared Service Division providing back-office functions for animal health. [HL2742]

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Shared Services Directorate provides back office services to a number of customers within the Defra network. As many staff provide services to more than one customer it is only possible to provide an estimate of the resource (based on volumes of transactions) providing back office function to the Animal Health Agency. This estimate for 2008/09 of 45.7 FTE (full-time equivalent) staff includes those in support areas such as business planning and communications, in addition to those in operational roles.