Sustainable Farming Incentive

Alistair Carmichael Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

[Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD)]

How many applications did the Department expect to receive when it opened the window? The farming software platform Soil Benchmark publicly estimated that there would be about 40,000 applications, and it thought that there would be a budget for about 15,000 successful ones. In the event, it was about 12,000. If Soil Benchmark could do that calculation, why did the Department not do so? Or did the Department do that calculation and then open the scheme in the knowledge that approximately two thirds to three quarters of applicants would be disappointed at the end of it?

[Stephen Morgan]

I thank the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee for his measured intervention, and look forward to being before his Committee later this month. We obviously anticipated that there would be high demand for the scheme this year, which is why we had two windows and increased funding for the overall pot to £310 million—I have already mentioned the window 2 process. DEFRA expected strong initial demand, and made it clear before the window opened that its duration would depend on the rate of applications. Ministers obviously allocated the £50 million, and then the additional £20 million. We are really keen to learn from all in the sector what we can do to improve the scheme going forward, and I look forward to the right hon. Gentleman’s contributions in due course.