Lord Bishop of Chelmsford

DEFRA’s current Rural Housing Enabler programme began in 2023. It provides grant funding to ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) to deliver and manage a network of independent advisors who work with communities to develop affordable housing schemes across rural England. The advisors help identify suitable development opportunities in communities, and support site owners and community representatives to navigate the planning system and create developments that meet the needs of local people. This funding is set to continue until the end of the current spending review period. We have bid for continued funding next year, but no commitments or announcements can be made until the wider business planning process is finalised.

Direct Payments under the Basic Payment Scheme in England were replaced with delinked payments at the beginning of 2024. Analysis of the impacts of removing Direct Payments (attached) was included in Defra’s 2019 farming evidence compendium and the 2020 Agriculture Bill Impact Assessment (attached).

We are listening to the sector to ensure their views are heard. We regularly meet with a range of farming stakeholders, including the National Farmers Union (NFU), the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), and the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA), and will continue to meet with stakeholders.

As part of this effort, the Secretary of State Steve Reed and Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner have met with NFU President Tom Bradshaw repeatedly to clarify changes in the Budget. Officials have also met with NFU, TFA and CLA representatives and recently attended the Eggs and Poultry Industry Conference as part of ongoing engagement with the sector.

The Secretary of State spoke at the CLA’s annual conference last month to hear from farmers directly.

Minister Zeichner also recently attended and spoke at Northern Farming Conference, the Eggs and Poultry Industry Conference, the Agricultural Industries Confederation Conference, The Tenant Farmers Association Executive Committee and the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution’s parliamentary reception.

We will continue to listen to farmers’ concerns to ensure their views are heard.

NHS England is working collaboratively with a range of partners including the Department, the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and others to support achievement of net zero ambitions for the National Health Service, as summarised in the Delivering a net zero NHS report published in October 2020. Action on packaging, alongside a wide range of other activities, will support achievement of these ambitions, often also improving efficiency and reducing cost.

NHS England is supporting specific initiatives such as Circularity in Primary Pharmaceutical Packaging, a not-for-profit collaborative which aims, amongst other ambitions, to improve the circularity of blister packs. The MHRA provides regulatory and scientific advice to companies improving the environmental sustainability of their products, and can assist with changes to packaging materials.

Patient safety will always be our primary objective, with increased environmental sustainability in pharmaceutical packaging playing an important part in mitigating the long-term impacts of climate change on our patients.

The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.

It is expected that up to up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief will be affected by these reforms. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) each year are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.

HMRC and Defra data describe different things. The Defra data shows the asset value of farms in England. However, it is not possible to accurately infer a future inheritance tax liability from data on farm asset values. HMRC data relates to estates making claims for agricultural property relief.

The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.

It is expected that up to up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief will be affected by these reforms. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) each year are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.

It is expected that up to up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief will be affected by these reforms. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) each year are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

Overall, the Government does not expect the introduction of the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on fertiliser to have a significant impact on UK farmers.

The UK’s core tariff schedule, known as the UK Global Tariff (UKGT), sets out the tariff rates that apply to all imported goods balancing the interests of UK consumers, producers, productivity, competitiveness and external trade. A large proportion of agri-food and fertiliser imports enter the UK tariff free. This is either because the tariff applied on the specific product under the UK Global Tariff schedule is zero or because the product is eligible for a zero-duty preferential tariff when imported from countries with which the UK has signed a bilateral trade deal.

Additionally, the UK operates an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). This is the UK’s principal carbon pricing mechanism and covers the manufacturing of fertiliser. In recent years, UK-based fertiliser manufacturers have received more free allowances than they needed to surrender to cover their emissions.

The UK CBAM rate charged on imports, including fertiliser, will reflect the carbon price paid by domestic industries after support mechanisms (such as free allowances) have been taken into account. As a result, we expect initial liabilities arising from the UK CBAM to be relatively low whilst encouraging the supply and use of fertiliser with lower levels of embodied carbon than would otherwise have been the case.

More generally, about 70% of UK agri-food imports come from the EU. The EU also have an Emissions Trading Scheme and will introduce a CBAM from January 2026; both of which include fertiliser. This means that fertiliser used by EU farmers will also have been subject to a carbon price. At the same time, many non-EU food imports cannot be produced in the UK.

The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.

Additionally, the Chancellor wrote to the Treasury Select Committee on 15 November 2024, setting out further detail regarding the distribution of claims at death for agricultural property relief. This letter has been published at https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.

It is expected that up to up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief will be affected by these reforms. Almost three quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) are expected to be unaffected.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

Through the Farming Innovation Programme the Government has committed over £127 million towards research and development funding to farmers, growers and foresters who want to develop and use new, innovative methods and technologies. The Government is also supporting farmers in adopting new productivity improving technologies directly on their farms through the Farming Investment Fund. Since 2021, Defra has paid over £99 million in grant funding to farmers to buy and install modern equipment.

The Home Office’s priority remains to ensure that employers and employees who play by the rules are not undercut by people working illegally, or by unscrupulous employers exploiting their labour.

We have repeatedly resisted calls to relax our policy position on asylum seeker permission to work. Allowing asylum seekers the right to work sooner than under the current rules could enable migrants to bypass established work visa routes, and may act as an incentive for people to travel here illegally via dangerous routes. Asylum seekers do not need to make dangerous journeys to seek employment in the UK. There are various legal routes for those seeking to work in the UK under the Points Based System.

The Atlas system records, as part of a leave to remain decision, whether an individual has been given a 'no recourse to public funds' (NRPF) condition, and every individual who has an immigration application record on Atlas has their nationality, gender and date of birth recorded as standard. Management Information related to the NRPF condition is expected to be available by late summer 2025, following the transition of caseworking for a small number of remaining immigration routes onto Atlas.

The Atlas caseworking system is replacing the legacy CID (Case Information Database) system and we expect to decommission CID in the first half of 2025. Atlas is already fully operational in practice, with almost all in-country caseworking across Migration & Borders being processed on it since mid-2024. A small handful of exceptional immigration routes remain to transition over from CID to Atlas in the next few months.

The previous government published a command paper on 19 March 2024 in response to the Brook House Inquiry report. Positive progress continues to be made in addressing the Inquiry’s findings.

A cross departmental working group chaired by the SCS Deputy Director for Detention Services has been meeting since September 2023. The working group continues to meet monthly to consider and monitor delivery of the Inquiry’s recommendations, providing oversight and overarching governance to monitor Inquiry recommendations. Home Office Ministers are fully sighted on progress.

30 out of the 33 recommendations made have been accepted or partially accepted, with 12 recommendations met and closed as of October 2024. The remaining recommendations remain on track for closure by summer 2025.

The Adults at Risk review forms part of the response to one of the recommendations of the Brook House Inquiry (Recommendation 9: Review of the operation of Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001). However, it will not cover all areas of the Brook House Inquiry and will not reassess the recommendations made.