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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to ensure that (a) silvo-arable and (b) silvo-pastoral systems are included in Environmental Land Management Scheme trials.

Tests and trials will not assess if new practices or interventions achieve environmental outcomes. This is because testing environmental outcomes would require a much longer timeframe and our initial priority is testing those elements necessary to ensure the successful commencement of the National Pilot in 2021. However, following the submission of phase 1 proposals, the Tests and Trials team have identified gaps within the existing tests and trials and made these areas a priority for phase 2. These gaps include certain sectors of the industry which were under-represented.