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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which measures required under the Nature Restoration Fund take agricultural land out of food production.

The Government recognises that food security is national security and is committed to safeguarding the most productive agricultural land to maintain long-term food production.

The Nature Restoration Fund will offer opportunities for farming and land management businesses to diversify their business revenue through the provision of conservation measures.

The impact on agricultural land use and management will depend on the nature of the environmental service they will be paid to provide as part of a given Environmental Delivery Plan (EDP). Natural England already considers the impact of its activities on agriculture, for example, when designing mitigation measures, the existing Nutrient Mitigation Scheme seeks to avoid the best and most versatile agricultural land. We expect Natural England to apply this approach to EDPs.

By shifting to a strategic approach, we can leverage economies of scale across an EDP and reduce the need for piecemeal or disjointed mitigations secured by individual development projects. This will ensure every pound spent helps deliver our environmental goals.