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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of farmers who were unable to secure a Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 Window 2 agreement before the available funding was fully allocated.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Of the 15,063 applications created for SFI26 Window 2, 12,204 were submitted before the window closed on 22 September. At the point of closure there were 2,859 applications that had been started not submitted.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to provide support for farmers who were unable to secure a Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 Window 2 agreement; and when she plans to announce details of future funding opportunities.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI26) budget has been fully allocated, and the offer is now closed. Farmers who did not secure a Window 2 agreement may have opportunities to apply for future SFI offers, and we plan to make an SFI27 offer available. We are working with farming representative organisations and the wider sector to consider how we refine the scheme for SFI27 and will share further details as early as possible. Other funding opportunities remain available, including Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier, woodland improvement and agroforestry agreements through the new Expression of Interest process, as well as Environmental Land Management Capital Grants and other farming grants.

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential for existing fibre infrastructure installed by third-party operators to be utilised by other broadband providers during fibre rollout programmes; and what steps her Department is taking to prevent unnecessary repeat roadworks where suitable fibre infrastructure is already in place.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government recognises the potential for existing infrastructure to support fibre roll out and reduce unnecessary works. The existing legislative framework encourages the sharing of infrastructure where possible to reduce unnecessary works and infrastructure. This includes requiring operators to facilitate access to their networks on a regulated basis by Ofcom.

The Government is committed to minimising unnecessary repeat roadworks by encouraging a “Dig Once” approach through the Street Works Toolkit and supporting greater sharing and reuse of existing infrastructure. The Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016 enables operators to request access to other operators’ existing physical infrastructure across utilities. Under the Physical Infrastructure Access product, Ofcom mandates Openreach to provide access to its ducts and poles to other operators.