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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many acres of prime farmland have been used for solar farms, what assessment they have made of impact such practices, and what assessment they have made of the proportion of land used for solar farms in particular areas.

While the Government does not currently publish the figures requested, the WMS laid before parliament on 15 May commits that the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) will expand the Renewable Energy Planning Database to include additional information on the types of agricultural land used by existing projects and those in the planning pipeline. This will enable us to carefully monitor the use of land by renewable projects in all regions of the UK.