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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of farmer who will be eligible for the proposed lump sum exit scheme and delinked payments.

We are consulting on our proposed lump sum exit scheme, including the eligibility criteria that will apply. The consultation runs until 11 August 2021. We think our proposed scheme will provide a helpful option for some farmers who wish to exit the industry. We are seeking views on likely uptake via our consultation.

We intend to replace the Basic Payment Scheme with delinked payments in 2024. When payments are delinked, recipients won’t have to farm the land to receive the payments until they have been phased out by the end of 2027. Eligibility for delinked payments will be based on a reference period. Our consultation seeks views on what this reference period should be.

Our consultation can be found here: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/agricultural-policy/lump-sum-and-delinked-payments-england/.