Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what work has been done to model the impact of climate variability on farm profitability projections.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Results from Defra’s annual Farm Business Survey provide an assessment of how the weather and other factors have influenced farm profitability in the previous year. These are published at: Farm Business Survey - GOV.UK

Last year we published Baroness Batters’ Farming Profitability Review, which offers a clear assessment of the challenges facing farmers alongside 57 recommendations for strengthening farm businesses. We are grateful for this substantial piece of work, which is rooted in years of experience and provides important evidence to guide our approach. We will now carefully consider the findings and recommendations.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's report entitled Rural Economic Bulletin, updated on 10 December 2025, what assessment she has made of recent rural employment trends in Buckinghamshire.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Official Statistics Rural-Urban Classification classifies Buckinghamshire as an intermediate urban authority, having between 20% and 35% of its population within rural areas. The Department has employment figures for Buckinghamshire as a whole.

Between 2020 and 2022 the proportion of the working-age population in Buckinghamshire who were employed rose from 77.7% to 81.6% before falling back to 80.5% in 2024. Data for Buckinghamshire for the 5 most recent years is published within Defra’s Rural Economic Bulletin Supplementary Data Tables. Worksheet AD contains the percentage of the working-age population who were employed for every local authority in England across the period 2006 to 2024.