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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the statement entitled Health and harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a green Brexit, published in September 2018, what steps his Department is taking to limit the costs for small land owners of the future environmental land management scheme.

The Agriculture Bill constitutes the first major agricultural reform in the UK for almost 50 years. It will allow us to break from the rules of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and presents a unique opportunity to devise a new Environmental Land Management system where the Government will work with farmers, land managers, environmental experts and stakeholders to test and trial new approaches and investigate innovative mechanisms for delivery of environmental outcomes.

Small farmers and land owners will be well placed to benefit from any future scheme.