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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that agricultural expertise is represented in government agencies.

We recognise that knowledge of agricultural sectors and skills is important to support the sector effectively. We ensure this through the staff we recruit, the appointments we make and how we devise and deliver policy.

Through our reforms to farming policy we have involved over 3,000 farmers in so-called 'tests and trials' and have over 800 farmers helping us pilot the Sustainable Farming Incentive routinely feeding in their insights and experiences. We continue to step up our partnership with the farming community through our co-design groups, which draw on industry knowledge to recommend improvements to Defra schemes. Over 1,000 people in farming volunteered to take part, including beef, sheep and cereal farmers.

Public appointments are promoted to relevant sectors via our social media channels and through stakeholder engagement. Defra works closely with Arm's Length Bodies (ALBs) to recruit Board Members with relevant skills and expertise. This has included specifically recruiting from the agriculture sector for the Boards of the Environment Agency; Natural England; Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board; Forestry Commission; and the National Park Authorities.

In accordance with the principles of the Partnerships between Departments and ALBs: Code of Good Practice, Defra has an agreed Framework Document with each of its key Executive Agencies setting out the broad framework in which they will operate. As part of such arrangements, the ALB is responsible for the recruitment, retention and motivation of its people ensuring they are encouraged to acquire the appropriate professional, management and other expertise to achieve their organisational objectives.

The Rural Payments Agency recognises the importance of agricultural expertise in the delivery of its services. For instance, it has a number of activities to capture insight which include: regular engagement with farming bodies and associations; the creation in 2022 of a farmer panel with over 750 members; learning from feedback directly received from farmers in their day to day dealings with the agency; and direct engagement with farmers through a series of face to face events all of which are improving the service and the farmer experience of dealing with government.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has significant areas of expertise related to farming and agriculture: veterinary and animal health officers (livestock health and welfare), plant health, marketing of produce, egg marketing, international trade of plants, livestock and animal by-products, disease outbreak and control, scientific expertise of farm animal diseases. APHA has run recruitment campaigns for veterinary and scientific resource and plant health inspectors, has various apprenticeship schemes and specific learning and development for the various professions. APHA also collaborates with academia and has an Academic Board to support further scientific education and qualifications.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has a range of experienced employees to ensure veterinary medicines for agricultural use are used safely and responsibly. This includes veterinary assessors and inspectors, as well as specific teams (such as the Antimicrobial Resistance and Residues Teams) who engage with stakeholders from across the agricultural sector to ensure compliance with the Veterinary Medicines Regulations and to inform policy decisions.