Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what reassurance she can give to farmers whose cashflow relies on Higher Tier payments arriving in early December and who have not received their payments yet from the Rural Payments Agency.

The 2025 payment window opened on 1 December, and by mid-December around three quarters of eligible farmers had already received their Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship payments. The Agency continues to work hard improving payment performance and to deliver all remaining eligible Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship payments as quickly as possible.