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 her Department's report, Better for Business, published in April 2014, what progress she made in cutting guidance to farms by 80 per cent by March 2015; and if she will make a statement.

Following publication of the Better for Business report, the target date for achieving the reduction in guidance was set at May 2015. By that date Defra and its regulators had reduced guidance by 80%.

The project continues and we expect this figure to increase over the next few months. This reform enables businesses and the public to understand more easily what they have to do to comply with the law and to find this information more quickly, including guidance for farms.