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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much money was returned to farmers as gross cash by (a) the Sustainable Farming Incentive and (b) additional funds allocated by Countryside Stewardship in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.

Defra reports expenditure under agricultural support schemes by financial year rather than calendar year.

The Department, as required by section 5 of chapter 1 of the Agriculture Act 2020, prepared an annual report about the financial assistance given during each financial year, starting with financial year 21-22. The first report was laid before Parliament and published on 31 October 2022 Future Farming and Countryside Programme annual report (publishing.service.gov.uk) and contains details of where funds freed up from reductions applied to Direct Payments have been spent. The second report will be published later this year. The reductions enabled the launch of the Sustainable Farming Incentive in June 2022, an increase of Countryside Stewardship payment rates and respond to the demand for the scheme from farmers, and the continued rollout of other schemes to improve prosperity and reward environmental delivery, including, Farming investment Fund, Farming Innovation Programme and Farming in Protected Landscapes.