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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish further clarifications of the assistance that farmers will receive from the Rural Payments Agency before such changes are implemented; and if he will make a statement.

I am happy to say that on 2 December this year , we published a document called Sustainable Farming Incentive – how the scheme will work in 2022.

The new document builds on the information we published about the scheme in the Agricultural Transition Plan: June 2021 progress update. It includes a wealth of information – including detail on eligibility, applications, payments, the Annual Health and Welfare Review and more. It also provides even more information on the standards that will be available from 2022, and how we intend to expand the scheme until the full offer is available in 2025.

This document provides the next level of detail necessary for farmers to make the right decisions for them and their business.

We will be releasing more information on the Local Nature Recovery scheme and Landscape Recovery soon.

Farmers can keep up to date on the latest information about changes to farming, including on Landscape Recovery applications and guidance, by signing up to the Defra e-alert, and subscribing to our Future Farming blog.