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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what comparative assessment he has made of the support available to farmers (a) under environmental land management schemes and (b) in the countries with which the Government is pursuing free trade deals.

We are undertaking an assessment of our proposed reforms to the agricultural industry as they are developed, including the impact of our future schemes that reward environmental land management. It is our intention to publish a comprehensive assessment in due course.

The Government also produces and publishes analysis for each new free trade agreement it pursues and is committed to publishing a full impact assessment following the conclusion of negotiations prior to implementation of an agreement.

The OECD publishes an annual agricultural policy monitoring and evaluation report which contains estimates of support to agriculture. One metric of particular interest from that publication is the ‘producer support estimate’ (PSE) as a percentage of receipts. As an example, it shows that for the UK the PSE is approximately 20% of receipts compared with 1% in New Zealand and 2% in Australia.