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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 August 2019 to Question 280135 on Agriculture: Subsidies, if she will publish a list of the 46 pilots which have been signed up to the Environmental Land Management Scheme; and whether those pilots are receiving financial compensation for taking part in that scheme.

To support the development of Environmental Land Management Schemes, we are undertaking a number of tests and trials working with farmers and land managers to co-design elements of the new scheme. The work is being facilitated by a range of stakeholders, including farmer groups, representative bodies and non-governmental organisations, and covers a range of geographies and sectors. 46 proposals are currently being taken forward in phase 1 and we anticipate that a number of these will begin soon with Defra reimbursing agreed costs incurred in their delivery. We have received a further 200 proposals for phase 2. We will prioritise those proposals from phase 2 that fill gaps identified from the coverage of phase 1 proposals. We will communicate the results of our analysis of the phase 2 proposals to stakeholders later this month.