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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current health and status of earthworm populations in English arable soils, and based on research and surveys carried out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ commissioned research and research of other organisations, what trends they have identified in the last two decades.

Defra is working closely with the research councils and is funding research to improve our understanding of the role of soil biodiversity in contributing to soil condition. This research includes a Defra-funded review of the current available UK-affiliated evidence base. The Report of the review was published in March and has been placed in the House Library.

We are looking closely at its findings, including whether there is a need to carry out analysis of trends in biodiversity in order to understand better how the functions it supports, such as soil structure, water movement, nutrient dynamics and plant growth, contribute to soil condition across a range of ecosystem services and management practices.