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

To ask His Majesty's Government what the relationship is between domestic food production, including increasing self-sufficiency and food security, and nature recovery schemes.

Restoring nature is not in competition with sustainable food production but is necessary to it. Protecting the environmental foundations of farming is essential to farm profitability, because all farms need healthy soils, abundant pollinators, and clean water to produce good food.

The Government has allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. The department is targeting public money where it delivers most value, supporting nature. By investing in nature, Defra is helping secure the foundations of long-term food security.