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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what forms his Department requires farmers to complete each year; what the length of these forms are; and what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the administration burden on farmers.

The Government does not require the same forms annually, and therefore we cannot provide this information. However, we are committed to improving the services we offer to farmers. Through ongoing service design and research with farmers, we continue to optimise our farming schemes, including the administration they include, to make published content clear and by iterating form design, so they work efficiently for farmers, food security and the environment, especially for those that are too often ignored such as small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms. This is a priority for the new Government and we will announce more information in due course.

In the meantime, the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) strategic programme is focused on enhancing and streamlining services, including customer communications, application processes, forms, and data collection. This initiative includes multiple projects aimed at understanding and alleviating the administrative load faced by farmers and other stakeholders.

As part of this programme, APHA has already conducted extensive user research, engaging customers across various sectors to identify their challenges and pain points. By listening directly to those who use its services, APHA is gaining valuable insights that allow it to evaluate and test solutions to make interactions with APHA smoother and more efficient.