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

To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Environment Agency has yet to issue a fine or prosecution under the Reduction and Prevention of Agricultural Diffuse Pollution (England) Regulations 2018, despite reports of 391 breaches of the Regulations in the last financial year.

When introduced in 2018, these regulations placed new obligations on many farmers in order to minimise the risk of pollution. Meeting these obligations can require farmers to adapt and change their businesses which can be a significant undertaking. Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) agreed that during the first year of the regulations being in force, it would be appropriate to maximise staff time spent helping businesses adapt to the new requirements to drive up compliance.

The EA takes a proactive advice-led approach to enforcement. Officers work with farmers to bring them into compliance before following up with more formal enforcement action if that advice is not acted on. The EA has found that most farmers are taking the opportunity to benefit from this advice and do not require formal enforcement action to achieve the environmental outcomes required. For example, the River Axe Regulatory Project, which aims to drive change on dairy farms has resulted in an estimated £6-8 million investment in farm infrastructure improvements and an enhancement of 30km of watercourses that discharge to the local Special Area of Conservation.

From April 2021 to date, the EA has issued 3869 environmental improvement actions to farmers to bring them into compliance with regulations. 1297 of these actions have been completed and it will continue to follow up the others to conclusion. Some actions, such as building farm infrastructure, can take time to complete due to planning considerations and availability of contractors. The EA will prosecute or apply civil sanctions if it is in the public interest to do so, but aims to work collaboratively with farmers to drive up compliance in the first instance. Defra has made additional funding available to the EA from 2021-2022 to recruit 50 additional inspection officers, significantly increasing their capacity to conduct inspections and work with farmers to meet their obligations.