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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to introduce a national monitoring system to track agricultural land being developed for ground mounted solar.

As the Prime Minister said at PMQs last week, we must protect our nation’s food security and therefore our most valuable agricultural land.

As per planning policy, 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. Planning Practice Guidance also sets out a preference for the use of lower quality agricultural land.

I agree that monitoring of the impacts of solar on agricultural land is important and am in discussions with my counterparts in DLUHC and DESNZ.