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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farms have applied for grants under the Environmental Land Management Scheme in the last 12 months.

The Rural Payments Agency published their Annual Report and Accounts for 2024-25 on 17 July 2025, which includes the most recent verifiable summary of Environmental Land Management scheme uptake.

Following the success of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 23 scheme, the SFI 24 Expanded Offer was launched in June 2024 where customers were invited to apply via an Expressions of Interest exercise similar to its predecessor. Once the scheme was opened to the wider public, 18,080 applications were submitted by 11 March 2025 when the scheme was closed to further applications.

12,081 livestock farmers applied for agreements worth £4.6 million for a vet to visit their farm for an Animal Health and Welfare review.

As of January 2025, there were approximately 45,000 live Countryside Stewardship agreements. This total includes over 13,500 Capital only agreements and around 31,500 Revenue agreements, of which just over 20,000 also include Capital options. This figure includes approximately 7,948 new Capital agreements received for the 2024 scheme year.

** Farm Businesses can apply for multiple Grants under the Environmental Land Management Scheme. The RPA ARA includes information up to 31 March 2025.