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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps with the Secretary of State for Education to encourage schools in urban areas to visit farms and learn about farming, food and the environment.

There are clear benefits of schools in urban areas arranging farm visits for their students to learn about farming, food and the environment. With our educational access actions, farmers and land managers can be funded to host educational visits to their farms and woodland at a rate of £363 per visit, subject to a maximum number of 25 paid visits per year. Officials will continue to engage with Department for Education, including on how we can support schools and farms to promote this. Between 2022 and 2024, the Rural Payments Agency paid for 11,404 instances of educational visits across 1,754 agreements under Countryside Stewardship.