Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of this financial year's farming budget has been committed.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s farming schemes are demand-led and many give farmers flexibility on when they claim, and in some cases, what they claim each year. This enables farmers to implement agreements that suit their businesses and helps the Government meet its ambitions for sustainable food production and the environment.
This means the proportion of the Farming Budget committed at any point in the year does not provide a complete picture of anticipated spend. Defra retains flexibility to allocate funding to schemes within year to maximise scheme uptake and use of the budget rather than setting rigid allocations.
The department will publish the Farming Annual Report covering 2026/27 around September 2027.
Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost is of the live existing agreements for a) Sustainable Farming Incentive, b) Countryside Stewardship and c) Landscape Recovery.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The latest complete year figures are provided in the 2025/26 Farming Annual Report. They show that in that year Defra spent:
Information on 2026/27 will be published around September next year. Final values will depend on claims made by agreement holders.
Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the entirety of the £5 billion committed over 2024/25 and 2025/26 was spent.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra published the 2025/26 Farming Annual Report in September this year. It showed that the department spent a total of £4,936 million from the Farming Budget across the financial years 2024/25 to 2025/26.
Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the remaining budget is for the Sustainable Farming Incentive for new agreements over the course of this Parliament.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Farming Budget is not allocated to individual schemes on a fixed basis across the Parliament.
The Government’s farming schemes are demand-led, and offer farmers flexibility over when they claim and, in some cases, what they claim each year. This enables farmers to implement agreements that suit their businesses while delivering outcomes including for the environment.
Funding is allocated flexibly to ensure the Farming Budget is made available to farming businesses in schemes that work for them. Defra will continue to announce scheme budgets before launch and to publish the Farming Annual Report setting out how the Farming Budget is spent each year.
Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to the farming budget across this Parliament by financial year.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra allocated £5 billion to the farming budget for the years 2024/25 to 2025/26. At the last spending review Defra allocated an average of £2.3 billion per year for the years 2026/27 to 2028/29.
The department reports annually on how the faming budget was spent. The latest Farming Annual Report, covering 2025/26, was published in September this year.