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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the evidence of Alan Law, Deputy Chief Executive, Natural England, to the Built Environment Select Committee on 20 June that “there is a less onerous regulatory regime in place currently in relation to agricultural source pollution” than that imposed on the construction sector; and what are the reasons for this.

This Government is taking a range of steps across the agriculture and water industry sectors to reduce water pollution at source to protect the environment.

We are committed to having a fair and proportionate regulatory regime for agriculture. This means applying the polluter pays principle in a way that ensures that farming and food production can be resilient and sustainable over the long term while also protecting the environment. We committed through the Environmental Improvement Plan and Plan for Water to review our farming regulations to ensure they are fit for purpose for our environmental and farming ambitions.

Farms are subject to robust regulations on agricultural activities which could cause environmental harm, including through the Farming Rules for Water and the Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations. These set out clear standards and a baseline that farmers must comply with. Many requirements, including those for slurry storage and nutrient application, require significant investment from farmers to meet.

We have increased funding to the Environment Agency for 50 new farm inspectors to ensure that agricultural diffuse pollution regulations are followed. This enabled them to conduct over 4,000 farm inspections in the last fiscal year. We launched the Slurry Infrastructure grant in 2022 to support farmers to bring their capacity up to six months of covered slurry storage which allows farmers to manage their resources while protecting the environment. We have nearly trebled our first-round budget to £34 million, with round two due to launch this autumn.