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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether data collected through his Department’s farm practices survey informs the assessment of progress on meeting legally binding targets set out in the Environment Act 2021.

Reporting against statutory targets is being developed primarily through data on activities that farmers have volunteered to do as part of schemes. Defra uses survey data, including the results from the farm practices survey, to build assumptions and understand more about land that has not been entered into schemes.