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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what is the statutory basis for the Department's engagement with the National Farmers Union on farming issues.

Departments are required to consult when there is a statutory requirement to do so or a common law duty. Alternatively, in the absence of a legal requirement to consult, a department may engage in voluntary consultation where to do so assists in good policy formulation and development.

Defra regularly engages with the National Farmers Union and a range of other stakeholders for these purposes. This reflects this Government’s commitment to engage with and listen to the farming community, and the recommendations made by Baroness Batters in her independent Farming Profitability Review.