Defra cuts climate change team from 38 to six

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has cut the number of staff in its climate change adaptation team from 38 to six.

A freedom of information request by Friends of the Earth revealed the drastic cutback in staffing numbers. 

In a speech at the Royal Society of Arts on Thursday, the former special representative for climate change, John Ashton, said the decision was an “own goal”.

He told delegates that Defra had cut its team working on climate change adaptation from 38 in 2009/10 to 23.5 in 2012/13, while only six are funded for this financial year.

Ashton also said that prime minister David Cameron’s husky – in reference to his pre-election photo shoot in Norway in 2006 – was dead with “a neat hole between its eyes”.

Friends of the Earth executive director, Andy Atkins, said: “After a year that has already brought flooding and other extreme weather to the UK, it’s shocking that the department responsible for protecting us against the effects of climate change is to pare its staff to the bone.”

Defra said the reduction in the number of staff was the result of a restructuring process.

A Defra spokesperson said: “How we adapt to any impacts of climate change has been embedded into every policy team in Defra.

“Staff numbers on the adaptation team will therefore be reduced and the expertise moved to other parts of the Department. A larger team will then come together to deliver the next climate change risk assessment in 2017.”