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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress the Government has made in planning for farm payments in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

The Government has pledged to continue to commit the same cash total in funds for farm support until the end of this Parliament, expected in 2022; this includes all funding provided for farm support under both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 of the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This commitment applies to the whole of the UK.

The Government has further guaranteed that the current level of agricultural funding under CAP Pillar 1 will be upheld until 2020, as part of the transition to new domestic arrangements.

To deliver this, Defra has made a number of statutory instruments under the powers in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. These statutory instruments provide certainty and stability to individuals and businesses by maintaining the current approach, ensuring the relevant EU-derived domestic legislation is operable following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and allowing the current CAP arrangements to continue to operate and payments to beneficiaries to be made.