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

To ask Her Majesty's Government why questions about land occupation were not asked of farmers submitting an expression of interest to take part in the pilot Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme; and whether they will now consider asking those farmers to provide information about their land occupation status.

To keep the expressions of interest for the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme pilot as simple as possible for farmers, we decided to ask only for information that was not already known to us. The Rural Payments Agency, our delivery body for this pilot, already holds the relevant information regarding land occupation (use and tenure) for those farmers who are eligible to take part. Any gaps in our information will be picked up and addressed through this pilot and any future piloting of this scheme.