Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to announce the long-term funding solution for internal drainage boards.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Internal drainage boards (IDBs) are mainly funded locally through drainage rates paid directly by agricultural landowners and special levies issued to district or unitary authorities.
Defra and DLUCH are working together to review the funding pressures reported by IDBs and the contributing local authorities, to consider whether any changes to current funding arrangements may be needed in the future.
For the current financial year, the Government has announced a £75 million fund, for IDBs to support agricultural land and rural communities recover from recent flooding events and modernise infrastructure to increase future resilience. In addition, the Government is providing an additional £3 million in grant funding to support local authorities most significantly impacted by the increase in special levies in 2024-25.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Minister for the Environment in the Northern Ireland Executive.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Regular engagement with the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs at Ministerial and official level is a priority for the Secretary of State and he will meet Minister Muir at his earliest convenience.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what financial support is available to farmers impacted by flooding who are not eligible for support under the Farming Recovery Fund.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
October 2023 to March 2024 was the second wettest six-month period on record in England; recorded rainfall was nearly 60% above the average of the last decade. The impacts on farm businesses are already evident in some sectors and are likely to extend through the year. In recognition of these events, Ministers are in discussions with our stakeholders about what further support is needed.
On 9 April we opened the Farming Recovery Fund, which provides grants of between £500 and £25,000 to eligible farmers affected by the exceptional flooding. The fund provides farmers with support to recover from uninsurable damage caused by the flooding. We have listened and responded to feedback and have already removed the requirement for land affected to be within 150 metres of the main river, which will increase the number of farmers who are eligible.
We are actively reviewing the eligible areas for the Fund in England, including the eligibility within the original nine local authority areas we announced.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the scale of illegal hunting with dogs in (a) England and (b) Wales.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Enforcement of the Hunting Act is an operational matter for the police. This is in line with their duties to keep the peace, protect communities and prevent the committing of offences, working within the provisions of the legal framework set by Parliament.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will publish the National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP) shortly. It will set out Defra’s ambition to minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment and the actions that need to be taken to deliver those goals.
We have not waited for the publication of the NAP to move forward with work to support sustainable pest management. Defra has recently funded a package of research projects that will bring together scientific evidence underpinning Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a sustainable way of managing pests, in order to look at ways of further encouraging its uptake. This work will support farmers’ access to the most effective IPM tools available and ensure that we understand changing trends in pest threats across the UK.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
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 NFU's report entitled Farming for Britain's Future, published in December 2023, what steps his Department has taken to increase confidence within the agricultural industry.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2020 we published the Agricultural Transition Plan (ATP), setting out our plan for farmers, allowing them to make business planning decisions with confidence. Since then, we have launched our reforms, aiming to give farmers more choice and ensuring there are offers available for all farm types and locations. This includes the rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and our Innovation and Productivity schemes such as the Farming Investment Fund (FIF).
We also continue to expand and improve our offers in response to farmers’ feedback. Recently, the Government has confirmed farmers will benefit from the improved SFI from July this year, following the announcement by the Environment Secretary Steve Barclay in January. The improved offer includes a 10% increase in the average value of agreements in SFI and Countryside Stewardship (CS); a streamlined single application process for farmers to apply for the SFI and CS Mid-Tier; and around 50 new actions that farmers can get paid for.
Furthermore, to aid the transition, and to give farmers confidence in their choices and the best chance of benefiting from our reforms we are also providing support via the Future Farming Resilience Fund. This fund is designed to provide free business support to farmers and land managers in England during the early years of the agricultural transition.
Lastly, on 14 May 2024 we published our Blueprint for Growing the UK Fruit and Vegetable Sector, which aims to boost production of fresh produce and reduce reliance on imports. This is backed by our new Horticulture Resilience and Growth Offer, where Defra will look to double to £80m the amount of funding given to horticulture businesses when compared to the EU legacy Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme, which will be replaced from 2026 onwards. We are also unlocking the opportunities of gene editing with £15m investment into Genetic Improvement Networks, helping to boost access to more resilient crop varieties, that require fewer inputs and cut farmer costs.
Asked by: Mark Menzies (Independent - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an estimate of the financial cost to farmers of flooding in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In March, Defra published its forecasts of Farm Business Income, a measure of profit, for 2023/24. These forecasts reflect changes to price, crop area and yield in 2023, but not the impact of more recent weather events. The results of the 2023/24 Farm Business Survey will be published in autumn 2024.
The recent ‘Balance Sheet Analysis’ publication highlights that average liquidity in the sector has been consistently improving over the latest five years of data and reached a 10-year high in 2022/23. This indicates that farm businesses have been keeping back funds in recent profitable years to help sustain the business in less profitable periods.
It is too early to make definitive conclusions on the impact of more recent weather events on farm profitability. We have no reliable forecasts of yields, largely as spring planting is still underway. Additionally, for many farmers any financial impact that arises will not be felt until later in 2024/25. On this basis we continue to work closely with stakeholders to enhance our monitoring of the wet weather and its impact on farms.
In April, Defra opened the Farming Recovery Fund to offset the financial cost to some of the most impacted farm businesses by providing grants of up to £25,000 for uninsurable flood damage.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading East)
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 by the Central Digital and Data Office entitled Guidance on the Legacy IT Risk Assessment Framework, published on 29 September 2023, how many red-rated IT systems are used by his Department; and how many red-rated IT systems have been identified since 4 December 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, has established a programme to support departments managing legacy IT. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding certain assets within the IT estate. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by next year (2025). It is not appropriate to release sensitive information held about specific, red-rated systems or more detailed plans for remediation within Defra’s IT estate, as this information could indicate which systems are at risk and may highlight potential security vulnerabilities.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers to adopt (a) integrated pest management and (b) other alternative pest management approaches.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The forthcoming UK National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP) will set out Defra’s ambition to minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment. Within the NAP we will set out our policies to increase the uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) across all sectors.
We have not waited for the publication of the NAP to move forward with work to support sustainable pest management. We introduced new paid IPM actions within the SFI scheme in 2023. Farmers are now paid to complete an IPM assessment and produce an IPM plan; establish and maintain flower-rich grass margins, blocks, or in-field strips; establish a companion crop and move towards insecticide-free farming. Paid actions for precision application of herbicides will be available from this year.
Defra has recently funded a package of research projects that will bring together scientific evidence underpinning IPM to look at ways of further encouraging its uptake. This work will support farmers’ access to the most effective IPM tools available and ensure that we understand changing trends in pest threats across the UK.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to raise awareness of legal changes requiring the microchipping of cats by 10 June 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have worked closely with animal welfare and veterinary stakeholders to develop and implement a co-ordinated communication strategy to raise awareness that owned cats over the age of 20 weeks will be required to be microchipped by 10 June this year. The strategy has included press releases and a visible social media campaign.