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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of future environmental land management schemes on (1) agriculture, (2) biodiversity, and (3) wellbeing; and what will be the (a) advantages, and (b) disadvantages.

We have produced early assessments of the potential impact of all land management actions being considered by the ELM schemes on environmental outcomes (including biodiversity), how these are relevant to our environmental priorities and outcomes (as published in Environmental Land Management: Outcomes, January 2022), as well as what the potential impact on food production may be.

We have a legal duty as per the Agriculture Act 2020 to consider the impact of our schemes on our ability to produce food in a sustainable way. We embed that duty into all elements of our scheme development. In addition, as the design and content of the schemes mature, we will draw upon modelling to refine our understanding and quantify the full impact of the schemes. This modelling will bring together an ongoing commissioned project to understand the environmental, and associated societal, impacts of land management actions across England over space and time with a project exploring the structure of the farming population and agricultural sector.