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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to approve the final national call for applications to the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development; and whether she has made an assessment of the trends in the time it takes for applications to be assessed and approved by her Department and the Rural Payments Agency.

My department is aiming to open a new round of national-level Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Growth Programme calls for business development, food processing and tourism infrastructure projects in early November. This will enable all stages of the project application and assessment process to be completed in time for funding to be awarded, in line with the Government’s guarantee to honour all funding commitments signed by the end December 2020.