Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of his Department's spending on agricultural payment schemes in the financial year 2022-2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In September 2023, the Farming and Countryside Programme (FCP) published an annual report for financial year 2022 to 2023. This set out that the FCP spent a total of £2.230 billion on our existing, and new farming schemes.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the number of full time equivalent personnel employed by DEFRA to administer farming and horticultural grants and subsidies in England on the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Defra’s Grants Hub data does not hold a ‘Farming & Horticulture’ flag so it would not be possible to quickly pull together a list of schemes in scope of this question.
Manually reviewing the schemes and deciding if they fit or not, without a standard definition of what counts as ‘Farming & Horticulture’, would require a degree of personal judgement and therefore yield some inaccuracy. It would then be necessary to validate the list with teams to ensure they are ‘Farming & Horticulture’ grants.
From experience of similar requests, this would push the cost to disproportionate (ie greater than the HMT-set limit of £850 for a PQ answer).
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the environmental impact of the end of cross-compliance regulations for rural payments on (a) hedgerows, (b) soil cover and (c) watercourse buffer strips.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
An assessment of the environmental and economic impacts of the removal of direct payments and cross compliance was published in September 2018, during the passage of the Agriculture Bill.
We will seek to regulate to maintain hedgerow protections when parliamentary time allows. The gaps between cross compliance rules and regulatory requirements in regard to water buffer strips and soil cover are either mitigated by regulation such as through generalised provisions in Farming Rules for Water and the Water Resources Act, guidance like the Code of Practice of the use of Plant Protection Products, and standards in the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to replace the cross-compliance regulations for rural payments which ceased to have effect on 31 December 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farm standards following the end of cross compliance are being maintained through existing and ongoing domestic regulations that protect the environment, public, animal and plant health and animal welfare. These regulations cover most of the cross-compliance rules. Almost all of the rules that are not in underlying legislation have cover through existing and forthcoming guidance, regulation or incentives. We will seek to regulate to maintain hedgerow protections when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to ensure that farmers are able to (a) access and (b) use capital grants.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have a range of capital grant offers which are readily accessible to our farmers, foresters and land managers to help improve our environment by planting trees and hedges, reducing air pollution and improving water quality. We also offer opportunities for them to invest in the equipment, technology and infrastructure that will help their businesses to prosper, while improving their productivity and enhancing the environment. These grants will continue to be available next year.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress his Department has made towards developing a new regulatory regime to be implemented once cross-compliance ends in 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has been working to ensure we deliver fair, effective regulation of farming and maintain our important environmental and animal health standards. All Defra group regulators have been involved in creating a better shared regulatory approach. Recent improvements include:
As part of the Shared Regulatory Approach, we have worked with:
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to permitting farmers transitioning from Basic Payments to Delinked Payments to discount one or more of the years in the reference period as a result of (1) events outside their control, or (2) a mistake; and whether they intend to review and amend the Agriculture (Delinked Payments and Consequential Provisions) (England) Regulations 2023 in this regard.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Delinked payments will be based on the average Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payment made to the farmer during the 2020 to 2022 reference period. The Government considers that using an average over three years is fair as any anomalies will be evened out. This takes account of responses to our 2021 consultation on delinked payments.
In addition, where a farmer suffered exceptional circumstances which affected their ability to meet the BPS rules in the reference period, they were able to apply at the time under the BPS force majeure rules. In such cases, the Rural Payments Agency may not have applied a reduction to the BPS payment for non-compliance with the rules.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the guidance on cross compliance updated on 14 February 2023, which (a) cross compliance standards and (b) rules for participants in the Basic Payments Scheme or Countryside Stewardship will cease to have effect in 2024 and are not otherwise provided for in their entirety in English law as of 23 November 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) cross compliance rules 1, 4, 5 and 7a are not fully replicated in existing domestic legislation as follows.
GAEC 1, which requires the maintenance of green cover, non-cultivation of land and spraying of pesticides within two metres of a water course. Domestic legislation, the Farming Rules for Water, however, provides rules preventing the application of manure and fertiliser close to a water course. It also prescribes that farmers must take all reasonable precautions to prevent pollution from cultivation practices, such as spraying pesticides. The use of pesticides is also set out in the Code of Practice for using Plant Protection Products.
GAEC 4 and GAEC 5, which require a minimum soil cover and measures to minimise soil erosion. Again, the Farming Rules for Water sets out generalised soil cover and erosion measures where it may prevent agricultural diffuse pollution. There is no reference to mitigation of wind erosion in the Farming Rules for Water. GAEC rules 4 and 5 are not covered elsewhere in domestic legislation.
GAEC 7a, which requires the maintenance of green cover within two metres of the centre of a hedge and the prohibition of cutting a hedge between 1 March and 31 August. Also, the removal of stone walls, earth and stone banks. Defra has recently consulted on new legislation to replace the cross compliance hedgerow protections. As set out in January 2023 Defra plans to pay, as part of Environmental Land Management schemes, for new actions to maintain drystone walls, stone and earth banks in good condition.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution that the (1) Sustainable Farming Incentive, (2) Countryside Stewardship, and (3) Landscape Recovery schemes will make to delivering (a) the fifth carbon budget, and (b) the objectives of the Government's Environmental Improvement Plan.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In the Net Zero Growth Plan (published 30 March 2023) and the Environmental Improvement Plan (published 31 January 2023) the Government has set out how its environment land management schemes will contribute to the reduction in carbon emissions and delivering against the ambitious environmental goals.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery are key interventions through which the government will support farmers and land managers to deliver on ambitions. A detailed programme of monitoring and modelling supports the design of these interventions and their respective contributions to a range of objectives for the environment and climate.
The SFI will reduce the requirement for fertilisers by incentivising herbal lays or legume mixes. Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery are anticipated to provide large carbon sequestration opportunities through tree planting, peatland restoration and agroforestry as well as continuing to offer capital grants that improve slurry storage all of which will deliver for the fifth carbon budget.
The SFI, Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery are designed to support delivering the goals within the Environmental Improvement Plan. As set out in March 2023, this will include contributions to thriving plants and wildlife, clean air, clean and plentiful water, using resources from nature sustainably, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and enhancing beauty, heritage and engagement with the natural environment.
As the environment land management schemes continue to be implemented the Government is undertaking ongoing research and analysis to quantify and refine the impacts these interventions are making and how they are delivering against the goals of the Environment Improvement Plan.
Asked by: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the impact of the (1) Sustainable Farming Incentive, (2) Countryside Stewardship, and (3) Landscape Recovery schemes on (a) reductions in carbon emissions, (b) increased species abundance, and (c) the delivery of their commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and sea for nature by 2030.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In the Environmental Improvement Plan (published 31 January 2023) and the Net Zero Growth Plan (published 30 March 2023) the Government has set out how its environment land management schemes will contribute to environmental targets and reducing carbon emissions.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery are key interventions through which the Government will support farmers and land managers to deliver for the environment and to reduce carbon emissions. A detailed programme of monitoring and modelling supports the design of these interventions and their respective contributions to a range of objectives.
It is estimated that across the SFI, Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery there will be significant contribution to Defra’s effort share to reduce carbon emissions through agricultural decarbonisation, tree planting, peatland restoration and other on farm changes. These interventions will also support the commitment to create or restore 500,000ha of habitat outside of protected areas to improve species abundance and halt species decline, this includes a commitment to support bespoke species recovery in key sites. Additionally, the interventions will ensure land is delivering for nature and new habitat created will be of sufficient quality to be protected, we have committed to ensuring that sites of special scientific interest are brought up to or remain in favourable condition.
As the environment land management schemes continue to be implemented the Government is undertaking ongoing research and analysis to quantify and refine the impacts these interventions are making.