Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of digital-only (a) services and (b) reporting requirements on farming businesses.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra seeks to introduce services that are digital by default which help users to succeed first time, and an assisted digital route is provided for those who are unable to complete a service online. This equally applies to reporting requirements on farming businesses, the main requirement being the Annual Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture which is digital by default but also available as a paper survey form.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on issuing guidance to local planning authorities on giving further weight to food production in rural planning decisions.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) safeguards the best and most versatile agricultural land. Where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of higher quality. Defra is working with MHCLG on policy and guidance to ensure that planning decisions made by local planning authorities are informed by the impacts on food production.
Later this year, the Government will publish a Land Use Framework for England, which will set out the evidence, data and tools needed to support development that safeguards our most productive agricultural land.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of exempting agricultural development from Biodiversity Net Gain requirements.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are currently consulting on improving the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for minor, medium and brownfield development. This includes a range of options looking at how threshold exemptions are used which will cover some agricultural developments.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential contribution of the yoghurt industry to economic growth in the dairy sector.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No such assessment has been made. We have a vibrant, resilient and productive dairy sector which produces a range of healthy nutritious products which bring value of £5-£6 billion at farm level, and many times higher when that milk is processed into a diverse range of products and commodities, such as yogurt. This has helped make the dairy industry the UK’s largest agricultural sector accounting for 19% of total 2023 UK agricultural output, bringing significant value to our economy.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has considered introducing a farm business investment loan scheme with a subsidised interest rate; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of doing so on (a) resilience and (b) productivity in farming businesses facing (i) commercial and (ii) weather-related pressures.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials regularly engage with financial institutions providing farm lending, and we will continue to work to explore further opportunities to improve farmers' access to finance.
This builds on the £110 million in farming grants announced earlier this year starting in 2025/6. These grants aim to support innovation and productivity investment within the farming sectors.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of climate-related events in 2023–24 on the financial resilience of farm businesses; and whether he plans to provide additional support to assist recovery.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We know climate change presents challenges to the agricultural sector. The government is offering a New Deal for Farmers to help address this.
We are providing farmers and land managers with the support needed to help restore nature, which is vital to safeguard our long-term food security and build resilience to climate change. In the recent spending review we committed to carrying on the transition towards paying to deliver public goods for the environment, with over £7 billion directed into nature’s recovery between 2026 and 2029. This includes environmental farming schemes (£5.9 billion), tree planting (£816 million) and peatland restoration (£85 million).
To address the impacts of flooding on farmers and rural communities, we will be investing £4.2 billion over three years in flood defences across the country – an average of £1.4bn each year and a 5% increase compared to the current spending review period.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to ensure that food producers are not undercut by imports produced to lower standards.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government shares the public’s high regard for the UK’s environmental protections, food standards and animal welfare. We recognise farmers’ concerns about imports produced using methods not permitted in the UK. We have been clear that we will use our Trade Strategy to promote the highest food production standards. We will protect farmers from being undercut by low welfare and low standards in trade deals.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to help improve the (a) recording and (b) traceability of farm animals through the Livestock Information Service.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s ambition is to achieve a comprehensive, multispecies Livestock Information Service, allowing disease to be identified and controlled more effectively, helping to meet our key priority of supporting farmers to boost our food security.
Through its Livestock Information Transformation Programme (LITP), Defra will replace existing livestock traceability systems across England, enhancing digitisation of livestock movement reporting, reducing paper use, and introducing electronic cattle tagging by 2027. It will deliver near real-time, accurate data to improve traceability, accelerate disease response, and better protect public and animal health.
We are working with the devolved Governments to ensure that similar changes being made in Scotland and Wales work together effectively across Great Britain.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) capacity and (b) capability of the Animal and Plant Health Agency to respond to a major outbreak of exotic animal disease.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) leads Government action on animal disease control and has outbreak response plans in place. These include measures to contract companies to support eradication and cover such matters as the deployment of non-Government vets and experts in culling and disposal. APHA also work closely with other agencies from within the Defra group to provide additional capacity.
Response capabilities are kept under regular review and appropriate action initiated where additional operational support is required, including the potential to make a request for assistance under the military aid to the civil authorities (MACA) process.
Additionally, to safeguard and enhance the internationally recognised position of the APHA Weybridge laboratory as a hub of scientific excellence for high-risk animal diseases, £208 million of funding for the next stage of the laboratory’s redevelopment up to 2026 has been approved.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has considered introducing a centrally-funded veterinary surveillance scheme to support early detection of animal disease.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our existing animal health surveillance arrangements are robust and we monitor for new and emerging threats to our biosecurity through our Veterinary Risk Group (VRG) and the Human and Animal Infections Risk Surveillance (HAIRS) Group. We are not considering a new centrally funded veterinary surveillance scheme at this time, outside of those for specific diseases where reasons for government intervention have been identified. However, the scope of our veterinary surveillance schemes are kept under regular review by the United Kingdom Surveillance Forum (UKSF)
Keepers, vets in practice and farmers have a crucial role in surveillance as the 'eyes and ears' of animal health and welfare, investigating herd and flock health and production problems on a daily basis across the country. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) leads government action on animal disease. In addition to APHA’s work to monitor and respond to reports of notifiable disease in animals, APHA offers services to vets and animal keepers on behalf of Defra through a national network of Veterinary Investigation Centres (VICs), which can provide diagnostic tests, post-mortem examinations and advice from their resident veterinary investigation officers and through surveillance pathology partners, independent institutions which also offer subsidised post-mortem examinations.