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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to adapt farming subsidy schemes to encourage farmers to (a) house farmed animals in woodlands and (b) plant woodlands in permanent pasture.

Our in-field agroforestry offers under the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes include support for establishing and maintaining silvopastoral systems, where trees are planted in pasture to realise their multiple benefits such as enhanced animal welfare and supporting biodiversity. Under Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), land managers can plant and maintain in-field agroforestry systems up to an average of 400 trees her hectare, as well create, manage and restore Wood Pasture and Parkland systems. Land managers can be supported to design agroforestry in a way that meets their objectives through the Agroforestry Plan capital item.