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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to balance the regulatory burden on the agricultural sector with the protection of environmental, welfare and food standards.

We are committed to fair, clear, effective regulation of farming – while maintaining and improving delivering important environmental, animal, plant and public health protections.

We have already overhauled our regulatory approach, removing harsh penalties in cross compliance, leading to an 85% drop in formal complaints, whilst working with farmers through an advice-led approach to protect standards - with over 2,600 Environment Agency improvement notices completed since April 2021.

We have removed bureaucratic, ineffective EU greening rules and we will continue to reduce burdens where possible while cracking down on those who let the side down.