Food: Production

(asked on 10th January 2022) - View Source

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 effect of the removal of the basic payments scheme and transfer to a Countryside Stewardship grant on food production in the UK.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 18th January 2022

The Basic Payment Scheme is not about food production. Decoupling of payments from food production took place some 15 years ago. Our evidence suggests that the removal of Direct Payments in England would only have a very marginal effect, if any, on overall production.

Direct Payments appear to stimulate a small (0-5%) increase in production only in the sheep, cattle, and dairy sectors, although the payments do not add to the economic value of these sectors. The overall profitability of those sectors is unlikely to be affected by a decrease in production.

Phasing out Direct Payments will free up money so we can reward farmers for delivering public goods, including environmental outcomes. Farmers will also be able to access grants to help boost their productivity through the Farming Investment Fund.

We recently reviewed Countryside Stewardship revenue payment rates and the new rates will apply to all agreements from 1 January 2022. Compared to 2013 rates, there is an average increase of around 30% but the changes vary for different options.

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