Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the new Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship actions can be added to areas already in the Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement, particularly in upland areas where the HLS agreement has a linked Upland Entry Level Stewardship agreement.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We plan to roll out the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer during 2024, with applications opening from the summer. We will publish more information about this, and how farmers will be able to apply, ahead of applications opening. This will include setting out how farmers with existing Higher Level Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements will be able to access the new offer.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when farmers in existing Higher Level Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements can transfer to the new offer.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We plan to roll out the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer during 2024, with applications opening from the summer. We will publish more information about this, and how farmers will be able to apply, ahead of applications opening. This will include setting out how farmers with existing Higher Level Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements will be able to access the new offer.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when guidance for the Sustainable Farming Incentive online application portal will be set out.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We plan to roll out the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer during 2024, with applications opening from the summer. We will publish more information about this, and how farmers will be able to apply, ahead of applications opening. This will include setting out how farmers with existing Higher Level Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements will be able to access the new offer.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish further information on the combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We plan to roll out the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer during 2024, with applications opening from the summer. We will publish more information about this, and how farmers will be able to apply, ahead of applications opening. This will include setting out how farmers with existing Higher Level Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements will be able to access the new offer.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when farmers will be able to apply for the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We plan to roll out the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer during 2024, with applications opening from the summer. We will publish more information about this, and how farmers will be able to apply, ahead of applications opening. This will include setting out how farmers with existing Higher Level Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements will be able to access the new offer.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will undertake an assessment of the impact of the agricultural transition on food production and farm business viability.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We very recently published a detailed impact assessment of a long list of actions considered for inclusion in the Environmental Land Management schemes. Actions were rated against a large number of ecosystem services and their impact on food production. An executive summary is attached.
We have provided information on the potential impact of our farming reforms. For example, the farming evidence compendium was most recently updated in September 2022 and the Agriculture in the UK Dashboard was published in November 2023. These set out the contribution of Direct Payments to Farm Business Income, including analysis by sector, location in England and type of land tenure.’
We also publish regular statistics on farm profitability, agricultural productivity and food production, including a recent statistical publication (attached) looking at how Farm Business Income has changed since the start of the agricultural transition. This publication also provides an overview of changes to the Basic Payment Scheme and agri-environment payments.
As part of the agricultural transition, we monitor baskets of relevant metrics to maintain insights into general sector trends. The Government has recently committed to producing an annual Food Security Index to capture and present the key data to monitor food security.
We will of course continue to carry out appropriate timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the peregrine falcon population in England of the theft of peregrine falcon eggs for sale of chicks to the Middle East.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra has not made any assessment of the impact of peregrine falcon egg theft on the peregrine population.
The Government does, however, take all wildlife crime seriously, including the theft of wild bird eggs, which is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
In 2022 Defra more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit from a total of £495,000 over the three previous years to £1.2 million for the three-year period of 2022-25 to target wildlife crime priorities, in particular crimes against birds of prey, which is a national wildlife crime priority.
Defra supports the work of the Bird of Prey Crime Priority Delivery Group, and that of the CITES Priority Delivery Groups, which bring together police, government and stakeholders from conservation organisations to tackle this type of persecution. In addition, we are providing funding to Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) to develop DNA forensic analysis for the police and other organisations investigating crimes against peregrine falcons.
Additionally, the UK is an active member of the Intergovernmental Task Force on the Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean (MIKT). The MIKT facilitates international cooperation to tackle bird crime, including the illegal persecution and taking of raptors.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many successful prosecutions by the Environment Agency there were for fishing without a licence in England in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In addition to prosecution, the Environment Agency will use other enforcement outcomes that include formal cautions, warning letters and issuing advice and guidance. The table below provides the numbers of these used alongside prosecutions between 2019 to 2023.
Final Action Taken | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Grand Total |
Advice and Guidance Total | 261 | 59 | 167 | 114 | 78 | 679 |
Caution Total | 113 | 25 | 254 | 573 | 1176 | 2141 |
Warning Letter Total | 182 | 102 | 238 | 1447 | 338 | 2307 |
Prosecutions (Successful) Total | 1876 | 464 | 728 | 379 | 250 | 3697 |
Grand Total | 2432 | 650 | 1387 | 2513 | 1842 | 8824 |
The total number of successful prosecutions is higher (+498) than the table above if you include fisheries byelaw offences such as fishing in the close season. Please see the table below for all prosecutions and enforcement actions.
Final Action Taken | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Grand Total | |
Advice and Guidance | 269 | 62 | 167 | 116 | 79 | 693 | |
Caution |
| 123 | 29 | 276 | 579 | 1185 | 2192 |
Warning Letter |
| 191 | 110 | 265 | 1461 | 362 | 2389 |
Prosecutions (Successful) | 2057 | 494 | 818 | 483 | 343 | 4195 | |
Grand Total |
| 2640 | 695 | 1526 | 2639 | 1969 | 9469 |
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the efficacy of sanitary felling in slowing the spread of Dutch elm disease.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Dutch Elm Disease is a highly destructive vascular wilt disease of several species of elm. We do not take statutory action against Dutch Elm Disease as it is widespread across most of Great Britain. There is no effective cure available for Dutch Elm Disease, but early sanitation felling, or removal of infected trees and branches, can slow the spread of the disease.
There is evidence that sanitation felling was used as a control method in the 1970s in specific areas such as Brighton and Hove which now houses the National Elm Collection, a well curated collection of hundreds of trees, containing cultivars of both susceptible and resistant species. Annual losses during this decade were variable but overall considered to be lower than areas where measures such as sanitation felling were not in place.
No official and specific assessment has been made on efficacy as local authorities make their own decisions on implementing control measures. However, local authorities such as Brighton with significant healthy elm populations that may still be implementing these enhanced control methods could hold more information on the use of sanitation felling at a local level.
Defra is currently prioritising investment in scientific research which aims to develop a more resistant and diverse elm population, to support the return of mature elms to the landscape nationwide. This includes mapping and gathering data on resistant elms across Great Britain, surveying their genomic diversity, evaluating the durability of disease resistant cultivars and establishing the current distribution of the two vector beetle species. Defra is also funding work with the John Innes Centre who are undertaking inoculation trials and propagating the most tolerant trees to establish new seed orchards with enhanced resistance to Dutch Elm Disease.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they plan to take to support and protect upland and hill farmers to offset any loss of income they face under the new environmental land management schemes.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Upland farmers play a vital role in managing some of our most important and iconic landscapes, which are valued and recognised by the public. In addition to farming, the management of upland landscapes can provide many environmental benefits and ecosystem services, including clean air and water, carbon sequestration and flood risk management.
Upland farmers are well placed to benefit from our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which are designed to maintain sustainable, productive land which delivers for both farmers and the environment.
The schemes under ELM have been designed to be as accessible and attractive to as wide a range of farmers as possible. We continue to work closely with a range of environmental and agricultural stakeholders to collaboratively design our new approaches to ensure they are fit for purpose.
Support for small farmers, including upland farmers, includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) Management Payment. At the recent National Farmers Union Conference, the Prime Minister announced that this payment will be doubled to a maximum of £2000 per year. At the Conference the Prime Minister also announced the biggest ever package of grants this year, to boost productivity and resilience, which will total £220 million. Upland farmers will be eligible to benefit from this, through increases to the Improving Farming Productivity scheme and the Farming Equipment and Technology fund. And the Prime Minister announced that the Government is also increasing funding for grassroots mental health support, because we know what a tough job farming is; and providing funding to support food producers by redirecting surplus food into the hands of those who need it.
This builds on support already in place for upland farmers. Upland farmers can get paid for over 130 relevant actions under Countryside Stewardship and the SFI from 2024. This will include new moorland and upland peat actions, with considerably higher payments for moorlands in good environmental condition. They can also extend their Higher Level Stewardship agreements for five years if they have one that can run alongside any Countryside Stewardship or SFI agreement they have, allowing them to get paid for more actions and take advantage of recent price increases. And they can apply for Countryside Stewardship Wildlife Offers for a range of management options that focus on providing habitats for farm wildlife.
Upland farmers in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or National Parks can apply for the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme, which funds farmers to support nature recovery, mitigate the impacts of climate change, provide opportunities for people to discover, enjoy and understand the landscape and its cultural heritage, or protect or improve the quality and character of the landscape or place. And upland farmers can continue to benefit from the Landscape Recovery scheme, creating the landscape scale and tailored environmental land management change we need for our targets. So far 56 successful projects have been selected for Rounds 1 and 2 of Landscape Recovery, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to funding that delivers environmental benefits in harmony with food production. Defra will open a third round of Landscape Recovery in 2024.