Defra reveals details of WRAP support

A breakdown of Defra's spending from May to September 2010 has revealed details of its contributions to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

The Department joined others in laying bare its spending over £25,000 in an effort to make the coalition government “more accountable, efficient and transparent than ever before”. The spending figures cover the period May 2010 to September 2010.

The money issued to WRAP breaks down as such:

• May 2010 – £4,265,000 for capital grants to companies; £77,000 for other current grants;
• June 2010 – £4,014,000 for capital grants to companies; £89,000 for other current grants;
• July 2010 – £3,185,977 for capital grants to companies; £82,939 for other current grants;
• August 2010 – £940,340 for capital grants to companies; no other current grants issued
• September 2010 – £5,663,970 for capital grants to companies; £348,001 for other current grants

Explaining the figures, a spokeswoman for WRAP told letsrecycle.com: “The figures you have got are relating to our monthly draw down from Defra and that is a mixture of our capital and resource funding. Capital is for things like grants, such as the AD grant we gave to John Pointon and Sons and the mixed plastic loan facility, which we have given out to the likes of Greenstar WES.

“The resource funding relates to everything from running our projects, paying our staff and paying our electricity, for example.”

The spokeswoman said it was “very unlikely” that WRAP would be publishing a transparency document of its own, revealing where its spending went. She said that it would appear that this obligation had been covered on its behalf by Defra's publication.

Funding

In April, WRAP's operational budget was increased by 12% to £90.93 million to reflect a broadening of its remit – with Defra providing £58.7 million of this figure (see letsrecycle.com story).

It had been anticipated that this would be squeezed in the wake of October's Comprehensive Spending Review (see letsrecycle.com story). And, at its annual conference earlier this month, WRAP indicated that it would be tightening its spending around communications and capital grant funding (see letsrecycle.com story).

Transparency

One other major grant issued to a waste and recycling organisation over the five-month period and published by Defra was £5.5 million given to the London Waste & Recycling Board in June 2010.
Over the period in question, Defra spent a total of £712,604,202.5 in the form of business rates, capital grants to local authorities, utilities and IT, consultancy fees, agency recharges, current grants, insurance and incidental overhead expenses.

And, one of the biggest recipients of funding over this period was IBM UK – which received a total of £52,026,332.88 over the five month period for a number of different expense types, with the most prominent being described as ‘Clearing – CIP – IBM Capital Projects'.

Elsewhere, the department of communities and local government opted to publish all spending over a £500 threshold, which is the same level that communities secretary Eric Pickles has set for local government.

Commenting on transparency, Mr Pickles said: “It is essential that both Whitehall and every town hall can justify to the taxpayer every penny they spend and that's why my department is leading the way in publishing all our spending over £500.”