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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Grant to Action with Communities in Rural England.

An independent evaluation of the grant provided to Action with Communities in Rural England has been commissioned and will report by the end of March 2024. This builds on a previous independent evaluation undertaken by PWC in 2019 which can be found at sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk reference RE0289.