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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of (a) current and (b) emerging health and wellbeing challenges experienced by farming communities.

We have built strong partnerships with Farm Welfare charities & support groups to exchange information and aid understanding of the current issues and challenges around health and wellbeing. We recently collaborated with the RABI on their Big Farming Survey, the results of which were launched at an event on 14 October. The findings from that survey align with our wider understanding drawn from our evolving evidence base where we know that a complex mix of factors influence mental health and wellbeing in the farming community. The RABI report highlights both stress drivers and opportunities and all these points are similarly represented in our existing evidence. Personal wellbeing is linked to business reliance, as well as regulations and changes in policies and within our Future Farming and Countryside Programme we are committed to supporting business opportunities as well as deliver new schemes in a way that can strengthen wellbeing.