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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that farmers are consulted on expansions to the Environment Land Management Scheme.

Farmers and land managers are at the heart of our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. We use a range of methods including social science research, user testing, and co-design to make sure that schemes are developed with and tested by farmers. Their input is ensuring our schemes are accessible, attractive, and fit for purpose.

We have learnt a lot about how to successfully introduce new schemes from our experience developing the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). For example, the application process and guidance for SFI were made simpler in direct response to the farmers who tested these. To date, our work with farmers and other stakeholders has included:

• Practitioner Working Groups, running since March 2022, where farmers directly shape elements of policy, standards and service design.
• Monthly meetings with 40 stakeholders on specific policy design related to Local Nature Recovery and Sustainable Farming Incentive.
• Fortnightly stakeholder meetings to provide technical updates on the Sustainable Farming Incentive application service and receive feedback.
• Testing and trialling components of the scheme and launching in a controlled way to ensure farmers receive the support they need.
• Piloting our schemes like SFI with farmers to learn from their experiences to improve before schemes go live.

As the ELM scheme offer expands, we will continue to shape our proposals with farmers and land managers – including those with specific requirements, such as tenants, commoners, and those with sites of Special Scientific Interest on their land.