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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Thrive initiative run by Devon County Council, which offers farmers up to three hours of free advice from a farm consultant; and what plans they have to encourage the roll out of this scheme in other areas.

The Thrive initiative is not funded by Defra but where possible we will consider any learning that it, and other similar programmes, can provide to inform our future plans.

We are due to launch the third phase of the Future Farming Resilience Fund (FFRF) which provides free expert advice to farmers and land managers in England during the early years of the agricultural transition.

It does this by awarding grants to organisations who, in turn, help farmers and land managers to:

- understand the changes that are happening;

- identify how, what and when they may need to adapt their business models;

- access tailored support to adapt.

Defra has awarded grants to 17 organisations to provide delivery of the next phase of the FFRF. The support will be available from October 2022 until March 2025.