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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that EU agri-environment schemes will be open to UK applicants after current funding guarantees expire in 2019.

The Government’s announcement of 3 October provided further certainty on funding to rural communities while we develop a new approach to supporting agriculture, protecting the countryside and generating growth in the rural economy.

We will now be working with the industry, rural communities and the wider public to shape our plans for food, farming, the environment and rural growth outside the EU.