Agriculture: Subsidies

(asked on 20th June 2019) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Environmental Land Management scheme pilots have been identified and agreed; what the names are of those pilots; how many of those pilots are (a) underway and (b) pending; and how many applications were rejected.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 25th June 2019

Environmental Land Management schemes (ELM) are scheduled to be rolled out from late 2024, with a national pilot beginning in late 2021. Detailed planning of the pilot is in train. The pilot will run for three years and will aim to assess the end-to-end operability and deliverability of the scheme, and allow us to identify and refine any issues or barriers that occur in practice.

To support the development of ELM we are undertaking a number of test and trials. The work is being facilitated by a range of stakeholders, including farmer groups, representative bodies and non-governmental organisations, and it covers a range of geographies and sectors. 47 proposals are being taken forward in phase 1. We are working closely with stakeholders to finalise these. Depending on the complexity of the test or trial we anticipate the first of these commencing shortly. We have received over 200 proposals for phase 2. We will prioritise those proposals that fill gaps in scheme delivery components, outcomes and land management sectors identified from the coverage of the first 47 proposals. At the present time, no proposals have been rejected.

We are working with stakeholders to understand how much funding they might require from the Government to support the delivery of the tests and trials in line with value for money principles.

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