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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will assess the potential merits of delaying the roll-out of Environmental Land Management Scheme as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government remains committed to developing a new agricultural policy now we have left the EU. This includes moving to a system that rewards farmers and land managers for delivering public goods with public money, while ensuring we can continue to produce food in an environmentally sustainable way. The new scheme will be launched in England in 2024 and will be tested and refined through a National Pilot which will begin in 2021.