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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of delinking basic payments from the land as outlined in paragraphs 91 to 99 of the explanatory notes to the Environment Bill on patterns of land ownership in rural areas.

Alongside the introduction of the Agriculture Bill last September we published an analysis of the impacts of phasing out and delinking Direct Payments. Delinking may encourage a faster transition of farming businesses and may help those who choose to leave farming. This could increase the ease with which new entrants can acquire land for farming.