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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to ensure that farmers will not receive a loss of financial support when the funds from the Basic Payments Scheme are used for new replacement schemes.

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).

Phasing out Direct Payments over seven years from 2021 is a key part of the transition away from the CAP in England and towards our future domestic agriculture policy. This will free up funding for new domestic policies that will focus on using public money to deliver public goods. We will set Direct Payment reduction percentages taking account of our detailed plans for future schemes and wider decisions about Government spending.

The cornerstone of the new approach is the development of a new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. As we make the transition to the new arrangements, we will be piloting the scheme before its full introduction. Alongside the ELM pilots in the early years of the transition we will continue to offer a simplified version of Countryside Stewardship. We have also set out the intention to develop other offers for the industry including on productivity and animal welfare.