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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, regarding SFI23, how many applications to the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 offer have been (a) made and (b) approved.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) has a rolling application window and as of 16 November 2023, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) had received 2,737 SFI 23 applications. Of these, the RPA has issued offers of agreement to 1,589 farm businesses and 1,227 have been accepted.

The SFI23 application window opened in mid-September and there is a rolling window to apply which allows farm businesses to apply when they are ready to do so.