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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Office for National Statistics’ dataset entitled Business demography quarterly, UK Quarter 2 April to June 2025 edition, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of (a) agriculture, (b) forestry and (c) fishing business closures since 2017.

Defra is aware of the Office for National Statistics' quarterly business openings and closures data. There are many factors unrelated to government policy that might explain why businesses would be shown as "closing" in the data source, including purely statistical factors.

Defra monitors data on the number of farm businesses registered with Defra for England published here Structure of the agricultural industry in England and the UK at June - GOV.UK.

This Government is committed to supporting economic growth. We continue to work closely with our agriculture, fishing, seafood and forestry sectors to ensure they are vibrant, profitable, and sustainable.