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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to implement the Environmental Land Management scheme options.

Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers and nature, putting us on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.

We now have more than half of farmers in an ELM scheme, including over 36,00 farmers in an SFI agreement. We are continuing to progress with the launch of Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier, and the first farmers and land managers started the required pre-application process in January. Similarly, we are continuing to progress Landscape Recovery with the first projects moving into their implementation stages this year.