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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2015 to Question 11893, when her Department plans to publish an assessment of the effectiveness of the Soil Protection Review and cross-compliance inspection regime in reducing soil erosion; and what penalties there are for landowners who do not take steps to reduce soil erosion.

Defra published the report ‘An Assessment of the implementation of the Soil Protection Review (SPR) 2010 and soil management practices in England’ in 2012. The report considered the overall impact of the SPR on soil management practices in England including on erosion.

Defra introduced new national standards for agricultural soils under cross compliance in January 2015 which apply to recipients of Common Agricultural Policy funding. The Government is monitoring the implementation of the new rules.

The penalty regime for cross compliance is set out in the Cross Compliance Guidance 2016 at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/guide-to-cross-compliance-in-england-2016