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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that Agricultural Land Classifications cannot be amended to facilitate approval of solar farm planning applications.

The Agricultural Land Classification system in England and Wales (ALC) was developed to support planning policy and protect high quality agricultural land from loss to development. Land is assessed according to the extent that its physical or chemical characteristics impose long term limitations on agricultural use, using the approved criteria. The assessment does not consider land use.

Instead, the National Planning Policy Framework sets out clearly that local planning authorities should consider all the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, when making plans or taking decisions on new development proposals. Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, planning authorities should seek to use poorer quality land in preference to that of a higher quality.