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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to seek reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy in order to boost productivity and sustainability.

Our immediate priority, over the next year, is to simplify the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Reducing the administrative burden of the CAP on farmers is a necessary part of increasing the competitiveness of our food and farming sector.

We have pushed hard in the EU for reforms such as a review of the greening rules which place unnecessary burdens on farmers for limited environmental benefits. There is an opportunity to deliver some reforms to the CAP as part of the Commission’s CAP simplification programme.