Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 assessment of the potential impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive on (a) small farms, (b) upland farmers and (c) commoners.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We publish regular statistics on Farm Business Income. Farming evidence packs for example have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance. These set out an extensive range of data to provide an overview of agriculture in the UK. We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason his Department did not give six weeks’ notice when closing Sustainable Farming Incentive applications.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To ensure fair access, and to avoid the risk of overspend, we could not give any advance notice to avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand.
Whilst we aim to give notice where possible (and we are aware the application service mentioned this intention of 6 weeks’ notice), there was no requirement in the scheme rules for SFI24 for us to give any notice before we closed applications.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what processes his Department has in place to monitor budgeted agriculture spend.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We monitor forecasts against the current year budget on an ongoing basis and respond accordingly to maximise the amount that can be delivered. We committed to spending £2.6 billion in 24/25 and are on track to deliver that having responded to a number of demands in year.
Furthermore, we have a full understanding of commitments into future years arising from multi-annual agreements. We monitor the uptake of our demand led schemes which have a budgetary impact on future years (such as SFI) on a regular basis, increasing the frequency of this as the level of commitment approaches the budget available in future years.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 return to budget management mechanisms from the Common Agricultural Policy.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No. The farming budget for each financial year is set through Government's Spending Reviews and managed by established in-year mechanisms.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 set a target date for reopening the Sustainable Farming Incentive.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will be reforming the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer to direct funding towards SFI actions which are most appropriate for the least productive land and have the strongest case for enduring public investment.
We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 hold discussions with farmers on the potential impact of changes to (a) basic payments, (b) the Sustainable Farming Initiative, (c) capital grants and (d) higher tier schemes on farming businesses.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State believes in the importance of continued engagement with the sector and has spoken with several farmers since his appointment. Defra ministers and officials will continue to work closely with the farming sector to develop and improve our offers to make sure they work for as many different farmers and land types as possible.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how long a period of notice was given to stakeholders before the closure of SFI.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To ensure fair access, and to avoid the risk of overspend, we could not give any advance notice to avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand.
Whilst we aim to give notice where possible (and we are aware the application service mentioned this intention of 6 weeks’ notice), there was no requirement in the scheme rules for SFI24 for us to give any notice before we closed applications.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 publish the spend on the agriculture budget (a) so far this financial year and (b) committed for 2025-26 including (i) delinked payments, (ii) agri-environment schemes and (iii) animal health and welfare, innovation and productivity grants.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information requested can be found publicly available here.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Initiative on food security.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period. Farm businesses with existing Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements or submitted applications will see no change to their payments due to the announced closure of SFI. Forecasts published this week suggest that at the all-farm level agri-environment scheme payments are predicted to have increased substantially in 24/25.
Food security requires a long-term picture of resilience to shocks while the closure of SFI is a temporary measure, 30,000 businesses are already being supported through SFI with more in other schemes and will be for the next three years
Now is the right time for a reset: supporting farmers, delivering for nature and targeting public funds fairly and effectively towards our priorities for food, farming and nature.
This Government has recently announced a raft of new policies to help boost profits for farmers which will support continued food security. The revised capital grants will be reopened, providing access to items which boost farm productivity. We are extending the Seasonal Worker visa route for five more years, backing British produce in government catering contracts, and investing £110 million in agri-technology. A new commissioner for the tenant farming sector will be appointed, and a veterinary agreement with the EU will be sought to ease export red tape. The government will also protect farmers from low welfare trade deals and lower energy bills by connecting renewable energy to the National Grid.
Other measures include a land-use framework for food security and nature recovery, a Cross-Government Rural Crime Strategy, and a British Infrastructure Council to drive private investment in rural areas.
The Government is also committed to making the supply chain fairer, with upcoming reviews on the pig, egg, poultry, and fresh produce sectors.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 (a) reopen and (b) ringfence funding for the (i) Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship and (ii) Landscape Recovery scheme in Devon.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The 56 projects in Rounds 1 and 2 of the Landscape Recovery scheme will be continuing. Plans for any further rounds will be announced in due course.
On 11 December 2024, we launched the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier with applications opening this summer.
To support farmers, we have committed £5 billion to the farming budget over two years – more money than ever for sustainable food production.