Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the amount of agricultural land that has been taken out of food production to facilitate the development of solar farms.

The Government recognises the need to preserve the UK’s farmland. Planning guidance encourages solar projects to use previously developed land, and be designed to avoid, mitigate, and compensate for their impacts.

Information on the location of current solar installations is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewable-energy-planning-database-monthly-extract