Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Defra have continued to engage with animal welfare charities, including on the withdrawal of certificates of exemption.

Defra are still working to develop this process, so that owners who no longer believe that their dog meets the legal definition of an XL Bully type can apply to have their certificate of exemption withdrawn. Further details will be shared once the process has been finalised.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates.    The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.

Defra has frequent engagement with key horticulture stakeholders including berry growers on the range of matters impacting the horticulture sector. Additionally, through the National Drought Group, ministers engage specifically with the National Farmers' Union and Horticulture Trades Association to assess drought impacts and to coordinate action across all sectors, helping to inform planning, response and resilience measures. This engagement informed the Government’s package of support for farmers affected by drought, announced in August.

Defra and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) are working closely with manufacturers, wholesalers and veterinary bodies to monitor availability and support continuity of supply. Defra and VMD have taken proactive regulatory action to expedite the import of authorised Northern Ireland and European Union-authorised BTV-3 vaccines, helping to increase vaccine availability in Great Britain.

Defra is working with APHA and The Pirbright Institute to reduce delays in testing and reporting. Testing is being undertaken by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) at Weybridge alongside the National Reference Laboratory at The Pirbright Institute.

A new online reporting form was launched on Friday 11 September, which makes it easier and quicker for vets to report suspect cases and clinical signs directly to APHA. This will allow private vets to diagnose bluetongue after examining affected animals, with cases formally confirmed by APHA at a premises level. Where a vet cannot rule out suspicion of another notifiable disease, including foot and mouth, the usual reporting and laboratory testing arrangements will continue. This will support prioritising laboratory capacity for tests such as movement testing and surveillance in emerging areas in GB. Defra will monitor the impacts of these changes on turnaround time and capacity.

The UK’s Nature Security Assessment examined how global biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation could affect the UK’s national security, resilience and prosperity, including potential disruptions to food systems.

To boost domestic food and supply chain resilience, this Government is investing £120 million in 2026 through grants to increase farming productivity and innovation, while Environmental Land Management schemes support practices that improve resilience and reduce reliance on artificial fertiliser.

Defra will continue strengthening preparedness for risks to our food supply including working closely with Cabinet Office, other Government Departments, Devolved Governments on resilience planning and food security.

Agriculture is devolved. Defra administers farming policy in England, while the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive determine their own agricultural policies and support schemes. As part of this arrangement, funding for agriculture and fisheries was baselined and un-ringfenced in each devolved governments block grant from 2024-25. It is for devolved governments to allocate funding as they see fit and they are accountable to their devolved legislatures for those decisions. The devolved governments’ settlements for 2025-26 are the largest in real terms of any settlements since devolution.

The UK government is acting in England to support farmers and give them clarity to plan and invest. The recently published Farming Roadmap and Farming Profitability Review response set out a range of short-term and long-term actions. These include investment in ELM funding, support for and investment in innovation and technology, and action to make supply chains fairer. The government has also established the Farming and Food Partnership Board, bringing together senior leaders from farming, food, retail and finance to drive profitability and strengthen food security. Defra continues to cooperate openly and transparently with devolved government colleagues on these frameworks – as well as ongoing policy development across the four nations - via informal and formal structures established under the Common Framework for Agricultural Support.

This Government is committed to improving the resilience of the UK's food system and supply chains in the face of environmental and geopolitical risks. With reference to the findings of the UK's National Security Assessment on global ecosystem degradation, Defra is supporting sustainable domestic production, strengthening supply chain resilience, and working with international partners to protect the ecosystems that underpin global food security and economic prosperity.

Ministers and officials meet regularly with representatives of the farming sector, to discuss a range of issues.

The Government is taking action to make it easier to build reservoirs. This includes reducing unnecessary barriers, updating planning guidance, and funding up to £15 million to build on-farm reservoirs, helping farmers store water and become more resilient to future droughts.

The Government continues to provide very significant relief from inheritance tax for agricultural and business assets. A couple are able to pass on up to £5 million of such assets tax-free between them, on top of the existing allowances such as the nil-rate band.

This Government is progressing negotiations on the UK-EU SPS Agreement alongside preparations for its ratification and implementation. Ratification and implementation will be completed once negotiations have concluded and the required UK and EU processes are conducted. Implementation will require passing the European Partnership Bill. Defra is preparing to ensure the benefits of the deal are realised as soon as possible.

Defra is working as quickly as possible to assess Brazilian production systems to ensure that beef and chicken from animals treated with certain antimicrobial products are not exported to Great Britain and is keeping trade restrictions under review. The assessment will include an urgent in-country audit. Sanitary and phytosanitary trade measures must be evidenced-based and proportionate in line with World Trade Organization rules.

The UK has one of the toughest pet border checking regimes in the world and this Government is committed to preserving the high standards of biosecurity and animal welfare.

The Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Act 2025 gives the Government powers to prohibit the import into Great Britain of puppies and kittens under six months old and introduce measures to strengthen current enforcement mechanisms. Defra will continue to work with UK enforcement bodies as we develop these measures.

The Government recognises the significant challenges that drought conditions can pose for farmers and growers. As part of the drought support package announced on 14 August 2026, up to £15 million has been made available to support on-farm reservoir construction.

The proposed level of funding has been informed by evaluation evidence from the previous two rounds of the Water Management Grant, where applications are expected to result in around £12.5 million of grant expenditure in total. Given the previous government were unable to spend the full budget allocated to the previous rounds of the Water Management Grant, we won’t repeat that failure and as such will continue to monitor delivery and demand to ensure the grant supports practical investments that strengthen water security and farm resilience to climate change.

The additional £50m announced by the Prime Minister last month as part of the dry weather package will be included in Window 2 of SFI26, thereby increasing the Window 2 budget to £230m (in addition to any remaining Window 1 budget).

Window 2 is expected to open on Tuesday 22 September 2026 for all farmers and land managers. It will be open to all farmers and land managers with at least 3 hectares of agricultural land.

The Health and Safety Executive is currently reassessing glyphosate to determine whether it continues to meet strict approval criteria.

Defra is working through the implications of the transition from the current pesticides regulatory system in Great Britain to a new one defined by the UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement under negotiation. The department cannot comment further on the SPS agreement as negotiations are ongoing.

The Government has made temporary adjustments to Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, giving farmers flexibility and making it easier for farm business cash flow as they deal with growing food in this summer’s extreme conditions.

Adjustments will enable farmers to create firebreaks on land in an agreement to protect houses, animals and crops from wildfires.

To ease shortages of animal feed and bedding, the government has acted by removing restrictions so farmers can cut and graze land in an ELM agreement.

The Government has also given farmers more time to establish ELM actions where dry conditions have made planting impossible.

GOV.UK guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hot-and-dry-weather-temporary-support-for-farmers-in-2026) went live on Saturday 15 August and measures came into force on the same day.

For farms businesses and agricultural products Defra is developing a standardised approach to carbon reporting. The work aims to establish robust methodologies and criteria for high-quality farm carbon assessments. It will improve the consistency and reliability of emissions data, enabling transparent and comparable greenhouse gas reporting for the agri-food system.

For UK territorial emissions Defra operates a world leading agricultural emissions accounting system, compliant with requirements set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. National emissions estimates are verified with real world measurements and modelled using science-based methodologies which are independently reviewed and publicly available.

This year's budget for Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes is £1.9 billion. This has increased by more than fourfold since 2020, when we spent £433 million. This is rising further still, and by 2028/29, we plan to spend £2 billion on ELM schemes, making a total of £2.7 billion of investment into farming and nature.

We have also recently published our Annual Report for 2025/26, which sets out that we spent £1.8bn on ELM schemes which includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive, CS Higher Tier and ELM Capital.

The UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory accounts for greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration from managed land through the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector, alongside the agriculture sector. Together, these form the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) component of national greenhouse gas reporting.

The Government has allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. On 16 June 2025, following the 2025 Spending Review, Defra set out indicative funding figures (https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/16/spending-review-2025-a-commitment-to-farming/ ) for the 2026-27 to 2028-29 financial years, including plans to increase the amount of money paid to farmers under Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes from £800m in 2023/24 towards £2bn by 2028/29.

We have also recently published our Annual Report for 2025/26, which sets out that we spent £1.8bn on ELM schemes. This includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive, CS Higher Tier and ELM Capital.

SFI26 is an improved version of SFI (Sustainable Farming Incentive). Upland farms below the moorland line can apply for all conventional SFI actions, provided their land is eligible, so will benefit from these improvements. Farms above the moorland line can additionally benefit from increases to some moorland payment rates.

SFI is just part of a range of support Defra offers the uplands, with other support coming from Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier, Landscape Recovery, Farming in Protected Landscapes, and the place-based, community-led uplands project Defra is undertaking with Dr Hilary Cottam.

The Government's environmental land management schemes have been developed to support delivery of the ambitious goals set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan, with farmers and land managers playing a critical role in achieving these outcomes.

To support the continued delivery of Environmental Land Management agreements, including Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier, Defra has introduced temporary adjustments that provide additional flexibility to support the delivery of CSHT. Agreement holders using these temporary measures must continue to meet all other scheme and legal requirements and return to the original requirements once conditions allow.

We do not expect recent changes to farm support schemes to reduce participation in Countryside Stewardship agreements.

Supporting British farmers and boosting the nation’s food security are key priorities for the government. As set out in the Farming Roadmap, food security and restoring nature are not competing aims. They are, over the long term, inseparable. The most resilient farms are profitable precisely because they work with the environment, which is why Government is backing a shift towards lower input, more sustainable farming systems.

There are now 4,165 live SFI agreements and 658 live CS agreements within the West Dorset constituency. This uptake by farm businesses and land managers in the constituency is supporting them to build nature‑friendly farming systems that can sustain or enhance production while strengthening resilience and reducing input dependency.

Defra recognises the ongoing debate on how best to account for short-lived greenhouse gases such as methane. While GWP* can provide useful insights into methane's warming effects, it is not currently considered a suitable replacement for conventional emissions reporting metrics in agriculture. The GWP* concept of "no additional warming" risks implying that continued methane emissions are environmentally neutral and may weaken incentives for emissions reductions. GWP100 remains the internationally agreed metric for greenhouse gas reporting. The UK will continue to engage in international discussions and monitor emerging evidence, guided by the best available science and international consensus.

The Environment Agency works with government and the data centre sector to ensure environmental considerations are reflected in planning and decision-making. They also engage with developers and planning authorities to help identify environmental constraints and opportunities at an early stage, supporting sustainable development while protecting water resources, habitats and wider environmental quality. Where appropriate, developments are also subject to environmental permitting, abstraction licensing or other regulatory requirements.

All new developments, including data centres, must consider local environmental impacts, such as water availability. New data centres will only be supplied with water where the relevant water company assesses that sufficient water resources are available.

The Marine Management Organisation provide a breakdown of annual UK exports of seafood to the EU in their annual statistics. The requested information is available on GOV.UK here.

As announced at the UK-EU Leaders' Summit on 19 May 2025, the UK and EU have agreed to work towards a common Sanitary and Phytosanitary Area, which will mean pet owners will be able to get a multiuse pet passport valid for travel to the EU.

Discussions on the SPS agreement are progressing, and Defra has committed, with the EU, to conclude negotiations before the next UK-EU Summit. Whilst negotiations are ongoing, we are unable to provide further details on delivery timelines for multiuse pet passports.

The Government is taking forward a range of measures to strengthen agricultural water resilience to droughts and heatwaves.

Defra has recently announced that it is opening a round of Water Management Grants, with up to £15m available to help farmers build on-farm reservoirs to improve water security. In addition, Defra is making it easier to build reservoirs, by updating planning guidance.

Defra also reminded farmers that they can apply to the Environment Agency for temporary abstraction flexibility, known as Local Enforcement Positions, where environmental impacts can be appropriately managed.