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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) farmers and (b) landowners in Northern Ireland have equitable access to UK-wide (i) environmental and (ii) biodiversity funding streams.

The UK Government works closely with ministers and officials in Northern Ireland to engage on environmental topics, including biodiversity. For example, they recently jointly published the UK’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, are collaborating closely on its implementation and producing a 7th National Report on progress. However, there is no funding associated with these activities.

There are relevant Sector Capacity grants which are open to lead applicants based anywhere in the UK (including Northern Ireland). The three grants include:

• Tree Production Innovation Fund

• Tree Production Capital Grant

• Seed Sourcing Grant

Information sharing regularly takes place at official level and through the Tree Planting Taskforce to help address UK wide challenges and share lessons learned on grant mechanisms.