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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the integration of bioenergy crops into agricultural and soil management strategies.

The Government supports the generation of heat and power from low carbon technologies, including those using crops and forestry biomass, helping to deliver the Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions target for 2050. The Government recently consulted on the future support for low carbon heat, which includes proposals for a Green Gas Support Scheme and a Clean Heat Grant with support for heat pumps and in some instances, biomass. Government also consulted on the introduction of E10 bioethanol transport petrol this year, where domestic production can utilise energy crops.

The Agriculture Bill contains provisions for financial assistance in England to manage land in a way that mitigates the effects of climate change, and for starting or improving the productivity of agricultural and forestry activity.

The Government recognises soil is one of our greatest natural assets and is essential for underpinning a range of benefits such as flood mitigation, food production and carbon storage. The 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP) sets out Governments ambition to replenish depleted soil and restore its fertility so that soils are sustainably managed by 2030. In order to meet this ambition, we are developing a healthy soils indicator for England as part of 25YEP. The future monitoring scheme through the soil indicator will be able to inform us on the impact of changes in land management practices, including the wider take-up of bioenergy crops in rotations.