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.
Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when will section 171 of the Crime and Policing Act come into force.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
To enact this power, we must amend Code B to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which sets out rules and safeguards for entry and searches of premises. We will bring section 171 into force as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans her Department has to maintain operational resilience of HM Coastguard on the Lincolnshire coastline in the context of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s announcement regarding the future model for Coastguard Rescue Officers.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Public safety remains our priority and careful consideration was given to the options for a revised operating model. The legal position, the operational implications, and the wider organisational impact have all been looked at in detail, as well as the views of current Coastguard Rescue Officers (CRO). They were clear that serving their community was a major reason why they volunteer.
Contingency plans are in place to enable the continuation of maritime and coastal search and rescue. HM Coastguard will continue to draw upon the full UK Search and Rescue system, including HM Coastguard aviation assets, RNLI and independent lifeboats, independent rescue teams, lifeguards and other emergency services as they do today.
Changing the Coastguard Rescue Service operating model is a mandated consequence of the Court of Appeal ruling in a case brought by a volunteer. Serving CROs are entitled to compensation for up to the previous six years of service, in line with the Court of Appeal judgment regarding worker status. The MCA will calculate each person’s entitlement and contact individuals.
Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the financial savings of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s decision to introduce a revised volunteer model for Coastguard Rescue Officers.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Public safety remains our priority and careful consideration was given to the options for a revised operating model. The legal position, the operational implications, and the wider organisational impact have all been looked at in detail, as well as the views of current Coastguard Rescue Officers (CRO). They were clear that serving their community was a major reason why they volunteer.
Contingency plans are in place to enable the continuation of maritime and coastal search and rescue. HM Coastguard will continue to draw upon the full UK Search and Rescue system, including HM Coastguard aviation assets, RNLI and independent lifeboats, independent rescue teams, lifeguards and other emergency services as they do today.
Changing the Coastguard Rescue Service operating model is a mandated consequence of the Court of Appeal ruling in a case brought by a volunteer. Serving CROs are entitled to compensation for up to the previous six years of service, in line with the Court of Appeal judgment regarding worker status. The MCA will calculate each person’s entitlement and contact individuals.
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, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled A New Vision for Water, published on 20 January 2026, what estimate she has made of the average annual cost of complying with the environmental permit regime for an average cattle farm.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
An environmental permit would require regulated businesses to apply measures to reduce pollution. The cost of complying with a permit would depend on which pollution measures they would be required to adopt, which would depend largely on the type of farm and the risk it poses to the environment.
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, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled A New Vision for Water, published on 20 January 2026, what estimate she has made of the number of cattle farms that could be impacted by an extension of the environmental permit regime.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Government announced its intention to develop options for consultation on extension of environmental permitting to dairy and intensive beef farms through the Environmental Improvement Plan published in December last year. The Government is looking to develop a proportionate risk-based approach with requirements focussed on the most polluting farms.