Committee publication · Correspondence · 10 June 2025

Correspondence from the Secretary of State regarding the Spending Review, dated 19 May 2025

From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Inquiry: Work of the Department and its arm’s-length bodies

Summary

Secretary of State Steve Reed declines to share DEFRA's Spending Review submission with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, citing the confidential nature of departmental submissions within the collective Cabinet process. He offers to present final Spending Review 25 settlements to Parliament on 11 June 2025 for scrutiny.

Key findings

DEFRA's Spending Review submission will not be disclosed to the committee ahead of the final settlement announcement
Final Spending Review 25 outcomes will be presented to Parliament on 11 June 2025
Reed invokes the established process: departmental submissions feed into a whole-of-government exercise concluded by Cabinet before parliamentary presentation
The government intends to allow scrutiny of outcomes and impacts once the settlement is made public, through normal committee processes

Government position

Rejects the request for advance access to departmental Spending Review submission. The government maintains that departmental submissions are confidential working documents within a collective Cabinet decision-making process, and that accountability occurs through parliamentary scrutiny of final published settlements rather than preliminary internal submissions.

Tone

Procedural

Topics

public-financegovernment-transparencyparliamentary-accountability

Key actors

Steve Reed, Alistair Carmichael, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, DEFRA, Chancellor

Notable line

“The final Spending Review 25 settlements will be presented to Parliament in the usual way on 11 June”

Key Quotes

“I therefore regret I cannot agree to share Defra's submission.”
— Steve Reed · Declining the committee's request for the departmental Spending Review submission

“Departmental submissions are only one input to this exercise. You will also recall the final outcomes of Spending Reviews are collectively agreed by Cabinet, only after this point is it presented to Parliament.”
— Steve Reed · Explaining the confidential nature of departmental submissions within the Spending Review process

“In declining, I should make clear neither the Government nor my Department is seeking to hide from scrutiny.”
— Steve Reed · Addressing concerns about government transparency despite refusing to share the submission

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗