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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with refence to the promotional publication entitled The Environmental Land Management scheme: public money for public goods, published on gov.uk on 20 October 2020, what steps he is taking to help ensure that farmers have information on preparing for the transition to a new agricultural policy.

On 30 November 2020 we published our agriculture transition plan document, which sets out more detail on the transition and the Environmental Land Management offer. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-transition-plan-2021-to-2024.

The agricultural transition period started on 1 January 2021 and will run to the end of 2027. Between 2021 and 2027, the Government will gradually phase out Direct Payments and introduce a new system which will pay farmers to improve the environment, improve animal health and welfare and reduce carbon emissions.

We know it is important for farmers and land managers to have clear, definitive information as soon as possible so that they can plan. However, we also want to make sure we are designing and delivering things that work on the ground. That means we need to learn and adapt as we go, building on the 74 tests and trials underway or completed to date, involving over 3,000 farmers and other land managers, and piloting extensively the new environmental schemes we are developing.

We will be publishing detailed information on the first phase of piloting the Sustainable Farming Incentive in spring 2021. We will also be consulting on the details of delinking and our planned lump sum exit scheme, publishing more details of our Farming Investment Fund and consulting on regulation and enforcement, all throughout the early part of this year.