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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure whether existing policies are rural proofed.

The Government has made a commitment that all policy decision-making should be rural proofed, ensuring that rural areas are not overlooked and that the intended outcomes are deliverable in rural areas. Defra leads on rural proofing, but individual departments are responsible for ensuring that their policy decision-making is considered through this lens.