Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of agri-environment agreements that are due to expire in 2025 without being replaced on her environmental targets.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra are offering a one-year extension to more than 5,000 farmers whose Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier (CS MT) agreements are due to expire on 31 December this year. This targeted, time-limited extension is being offered, whilst we develop the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive for 2026, and refresh the Environmental Improvement Plan and roll out the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. The one-off investment of £70m (from within existing budgets) will allow farmers to continue their vital role in sustainable food production and nature’s recovery. Ministers will now review plans for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), to ensure the available funding is distributed more efficiently and more fairly.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Rural Payments Agency plans to take to help support people with expiring agri-environment agreements to enter new agreements.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra are offering a one-year extension to more than 5,000 farmers whose Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier (CS MT) agreements are due to expire on 31 December this year. This targeted, time-limited extension is being offered, whilst we develop the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive for 2026, and refresh the Environmental Improvement Plan and roll out the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. The one-off investment of £70m (from within existing budgets) will allow farmers to continue their vital role in sustainable food production and nature’s recovery. Ministers will now review plans for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), to ensure the available funding is distributed more efficiently and more fairly.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to provide funding to help support people with expiring agri-environment agreements to enter new agreements.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra are offering a one-year extension to more than 5,000 farmers whose Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier (CS MT) agreements are due to expire on 31 December this year. This targeted, time-limited extension is being offered, whilst we develop the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive for 2026, and refresh the Environmental Improvement Plan and roll out the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. The one-off investment of £70m (from within existing budgets) will allow farmers to continue their vital role in sustainable food production and nature’s recovery. Ministers will now review plans for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), to ensure the available funding is distributed more efficiently and more fairly.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
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 help support the holders of agri-environment agreements that expire in 2025 to access new agreements.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra are offering a one-year extension to more than 5,000 farmers whose Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier (CS MT) agreements are due to expire on 31 December this year. This targeted, time-limited extension is being offered, whilst we develop the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive for 2026, and refresh the Environmental Improvement Plan and roll out the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. The one-off investment of £70m (from within existing budgets) will allow farmers to continue their vital role in sustainable food production and nature’s recovery. Ministers will now review plans for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), to ensure the available funding is distributed more efficiently and more fairly.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of her Department's agricultural budget for the 2026-27 financial year will be spent on existing multi-year agri-environment agreements.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are investing £2.7 billion a year into sustainable food production and nature's recovery. Overall, farmers and land managers will benefit from an average of £2.3 billion a year through the Farming and Countryside Programme. And up to £400 million from additional nature schemes, including those for tree planting and peatland restorations. Funding for the Environmental Land Management schemes paid to farmers, which includes multi-annual agri-environment agreements, will increase by 150% from £800 billion in 2023/24 to £2 billion by 2028/29.
Defra manages the farming budget flexibly. To respond to demand and achieve our intended outcomes for farm productivity, environment, climate and animal health and welfare.
In line with its obligations under the Agriculture Act 2020, Defra regularly publishes an annual report, setting out commitments in the previous financial year, including FCP spend broken down by each scheme.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of implementing a one-year rollover for agri-environment agreements that are due to expire in 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra are offering a one-year extension to more than 5,000 farmers whose Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier (CS MT) agreements are due to expire on 31 December this year. This targeted, time-limited extension is being offered, whilst we develop the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive for 2026, and refresh the Environmental Improvement Plan and roll out the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. The one-off investment of £70m (from within existing budgets) will allow farmers to continue their vital role in sustainable food production and nature’s recovery. Ministers will now review plans for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), to ensure the available funding is distributed more efficiently and more fairly.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of agri-environment agreements that are due to expire in 2025 without being replaced on farm business cashflow.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra are offering a one-year extension to more than 5,000 farmers whose Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier (CS MT) agreements are due to expire on 31 December this year. This targeted, time-limited extension is being offered, whilst we develop the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive for 2026, and refresh the Environmental Improvement Plan and roll out the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. The one-off investment of £70m (from within existing budgets) will allow farmers to continue their vital role in sustainable food production and nature’s recovery. Ministers will now review plans for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), to ensure the available funding is distributed more efficiently and more fairly.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on what evidential basis he determined the level of funding through the Rural England Prosperity Fund in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra announced on 4 March that it would be providing an additional £33 million for the Rural England Prosperity Fund in financial year 2025-26. This announcement continues funding beyond the lifetime of the original scheme providing new money for new projects in rural areas.
The Autumn Statement on 30 October confirmed Defra’s budgets for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Funding allocations for individual programmes have been determined through the department’s business planning exercise. Future funding decisions remain subject to the Government spending review.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of creating national fire safety (a) standards and (b) regulations for battery energy storage sites to help support (i) fire and rescue services and (ii) local authorities to conduct risk assessments.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government agrees with the need to have robust measures in place to manage the risks associated with facilities that use large numbers of lithium-ion batteries. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulates grid-scale lithium-ion batteries within a robust regulatory framework which requires Battery Energy and Storage Systems (BESS) designers, installers, and operators to take the necessary measures throughout all stages of the system’s construction, operation and decommissioning to ensure its health and safety.
Defra is considering further options, including environmental permitting, for managing the environmental and public health risks from fires at BESS sites.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to (a) develop and (b) adopt UK-specific fire safety regulations for battery energy storage systems.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government agrees with the need to have robust measures in place to manage the risks associated with facilities that use large numbers of lithium-ion batteries. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulates grid-scale lithium-ion batteries within a robust regulatory framework which requires Battery Energy and Storage Systems (BESS) designers, installers, and operators to take the necessary measures throughout all stages of the system’s construction, operation and decommissioning to ensure its health and safety.
Defra is considering further options, including environmental permitting, for managing the environmental and public health risks from fires at BESS sites.