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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on allowing land identified as Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England to be used for food production without financial penalties for farmers.

Locally significant historical and archaeological features identified by local authority Historic Environment officers that could potentially benefit from management under environmental land management schemes are placed on the Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England (or SHINE).

These irreplaceable features are often only on a part of a parcel and Government does not pay for any action that could cause them damage. Farmers may already be using this land for food production and many of these features are subject to environmental land management scheme actions which either cause no harm or can directly benefit them.

In 2022 we changed the process so that we could allow for the areas containing sensitive heritage features to be separated out from the remaining field area.

We want to ensure that farmers have the maximum opportunities to be able to take part in our schemes and to that end will work with our partners to refine both SHINE data and SFI actions. We also expect to introduce further actions that allow for management of SHINE features under the Sustainable Farming Incentive later in the year.

We will hold a roundtable discussion in due course to address the issues raised.