Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
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 introduce statutory protection of the title “Registered Veterinary Nurse”.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As set out in the newly released consultation regarding reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, Defra is proposing statutory protection of the Veterinary Nurse title in line with Veterinary Surgeons.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
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 plans to take to increase participation in the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the newly released consultation regarding reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, Defra proposes to replace the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme with a mandatory licence for all veterinary and animal healthcare businesses. This will ensure they all meet the required standards, including the 30% of practices not currently engaged with the Practice Standards Scheme.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as of 1st October 2025 how many SFI agreements included actions SAM1, NUM1, HRW1 and IPM1 broken down by individual action.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of 1st October 2025, there were 32,405, Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements which included actions (C)SAM1, (C) NUM1, (C)HRW1 or (C)IPM1.
The number of agreements containing these actions and the value of these actions broken down by individual action are shown in the table below.
option code | Number of Agreements | Total Value of Action within Agreement (£) |
CHRW1 | 5,766 | 8,754,000 |
CIPM1 | 7,162 | 24,258,000 |
CNUM1 | 7,593 | 14,852,000 |
CSAM1 | 9,179 | 17,963,000 |
HRW1 | 10,191 | 21,709,000 |
IPM1 | 15,656 | 53,025,000 |
NUM1 | 16,583 | 32,435,000 |
SAM1 | 18,421 | 51,638,000 |
To Note: An Agreement can have multiple options so for example may have NUM1, SAM1 & IPM1 so may be counted multiple times under number of agreements in the table above.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to bring forward legislation to prohibit the use of dogs in hunting activities, including trail hunting.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to enacting a ban on the activity of trail hunting in line with its manifesto commitment. Work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing and Defra intends to consult on how to deliver a ban this year. We plan to introduce legislation to ban the activity of trail hunting when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total annual payments made to businesses under the SFI for actions SAM1, NUM1, IPM1 and HRW1 (broken down by individual action) were at 1 October 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of 1st October 2025, there were 32,405, Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements which included actions (C)SAM1, (C) NUM1, (C)HRW1 or (C)IPM1.
The number of agreements containing these actions and the value of these actions broken down by individual action are shown in the table below.
option code | Number of Agreements | Total Value of Action within Agreement (£) |
CHRW1 | 5,766 | 8,754,000 |
CIPM1 | 7,162 | 24,258,000 |
CNUM1 | 7,593 | 14,852,000 |
CSAM1 | 9,179 | 17,963,000 |
HRW1 | 10,191 | 21,709,000 |
IPM1 | 15,656 | 53,025,000 |
NUM1 | 16,583 | 32,435,000 |
SAM1 | 18,421 | 51,638,000 |
To Note: An Agreement can have multiple options so for example may have NUM1, SAM1 & IPM1 so may be counted multiple times under number of agreements in the table above.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
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 HCWS1230, what funding she has allocated to the place-based uplands approach announced at the Oxford Farming Conference; what objectives it is intended to achieve; and how food production will be safeguarded within that approach.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government knows how important upland landscapes are for farming, nature and rural economies, and is committed to investing in this work to deliver meaningful benefits for upland communities. By empowering local decision‑making, Defra will unlock the economic potential of the uplands and ensure that the people who live and work there can shape their future and decide what will help their communities thrive.
Defra has allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. The department will say more about funding for the place-based uplands approach in due course.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in reference to HCWS1230, 8 January 2026, when the Farming Roadmap will be published; what timescales it will set out for future changes to farm support; and how it will provide long-term certainty for farmers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Farming Roadmap will set the course of farming in England for the next 25 years. Over the last year, the Government has held workshops with farmers, industry leaders and farming and environmental groups to identify themes and content the roadmap should include. Defra will aim to publish later this year (2026).
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
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 HCWS1230, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed reforms to the Sustainable Farming Incentive on levels of domestic food production, farm profitability and the distribution of scheme payments; how the revised scheme will address the previous concentration of funding; and when revised actions, payment rates and transitional arrangements will be published.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Some of the main improvements the Government is making to the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer are:
Previously, 90% of SFI spending went on fewer than 40 of the 102 actions available and a quarter of SFI money goes to just 4% of farms. This is not fair. Therefore, Ministers are considering ways to address this, such as introducing an agreement value cap, and are making improvements to the offer to ensure more farmers can access funding.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of potential barriers to rural workforce housing on farm labour availability.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government regularly reviews and publishes data relating to rural housing on GOV.UK: Housing Statistics for Rural England - GOV.UK. The Government gives all due consideration to this data, including implications for the rural workforce, when formulating policy.
In relation to seasonal workers via the visa route, there are no housing barriers identified for this cohort as accommodation is provided as part of the conditions of their sponsor, in the main part as on-farm caravan accommodation.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much their Department has spent on (a) advertising and (b) marketing in each of the last three years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The table below details Defra’s advertising and marketing costs for the 22/23, 23/24 and 24/25 financial years. Defra publishes details on spend on a monthly basis on GOV.UK as part of routine government transparency arrangements.
| 22/23 | 23/24 | 24/25 |
Advertising | £274,456.69 | £827,530.88 | £26,426.58 |
Marketing spend (other) | £192,984.23 | £484,027.95 | £18,322.07 |
The current Government came into power within the 2024/25 financial year and completed a review of all 131 public campaigns with spend of over £100k.