Asked by: Earl of Sandwich (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government why existing agri-environment schemes such as the Countryside Stewardship scheme are based on the claim deadline of 15 May 2023 while the Rural Payments Agency window runs up until 30 June 2024, resulting in wait times of up to 13 months for farmers and land managers to receive their payments; and whether they have any plans to change this in future.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Within the European Union, policies were set for seven years with limited opportunity to change, however, now that we have left the EU, we are rolling out our new environmental land management schemes and are adopting new approaches, including to our payment frequencies. We have already introduced more frequent payments in our new schemes, to make them work better for farm businesses. For example, SFI offers payments on a quarterly schedule, so that farmers start getting paid in the fourth month of their agreement, and every 3 months after that. Where possible, as we expand the offer, we will offer more frequent payments to more participants.
Correspondence Apr. 23 2024
Committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (Department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)Found: Reviewing and adapting ELM schemes In response to our call for more ambitious ELM scheme s post-2026
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding his Department has allocated to the farming sector in South Holland and the Deepings constituency since 2022 by (a) funding type and (b) recipient.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rual Payment Agency has supported the farming and rural sector through payments under a range of schemes.
Since January 2022, the RPA has released 954 payments to farmers, worth around £21.3m, in South Holland and the Deepings constituency broken down as follows.
Vol/Val | Basic Payment Scheme | Countryside Stewardship Scheme | Environmental Stewardship | Sustainable Farm Incentive | Other Grants | Total |
Volume | 756 | 140 | 5 | 25 | 28 | 954 |
Value (£) | £ 17,960,030.90 | £ 1,863,631.02 | £ 98,297.09 | £ 384,085.30 | £ 963,624.28 | £ 21,269,668.59 |
Correspondence Apr. 17 2024
Committee: Welsh Affairs Committee (Department: Wales Office)Found: the above trend, they also identified ‘return migrants’ who had moved back to Wales and/or to the countryside
Scrutiny evidence Apr. 17 2024
Committee: Secondary Legislation Scrutiny CommitteeFound: Submission on the Countryside Stewardship (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 and government response
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the number of payments made to farmers by the Rural Payments Agency in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) South Holland and the Deepings constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The RPA has made over 21,094 payments in Lincolnshire and 2,205 in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency, over the last 5 years across the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship (CS), Environmental Stewardship (ES) schemes and Grants.
To Note: Both tables include the number claims paid in the scheme year for BPS, CS Revenue, CS Capital, ES, SFI and Grants. This is not at unique customer level and therefore a customer may have received a payment from multiple schemes – which answers the “number of payments to customers” ask.
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Lincolnshire | South Holland and the Deepings | ||||||
Scheme Year | Total | Scheme Year | Total | ||||
Volume | Volume | ||||||
2019 | 3,929 | 2019 | 423 | ||||
2020 | 3,969 | 2020 | 421 | ||||
2021 | 4,221 | 2021 | 442 | ||||
2022 | 4,565 | 2022 | 463 | ||||
2023 | 4,410 | 2023 | 456 | ||||
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Found: managers.103,144,145 In England, upcoming changes to Defra’s Environmental Land Management payment scheme
Apr. 08 2024
Source Page: Recovered appeal: land north of Butterfly Lane, land surrounding Hilfield Farm and land west of Hilfield Lane, Aldenham, Hertfordshire (ref: 3295268 - 8 April 2024)Found: The appeal scheme would encroach into the countryside between Bushey, Radlett, and Borehamwood in
Found: system; and • new schemes to pay for ‘public goods’ including environmental protection, access to the countryside
Oral Evidence Mar. 26 2024
Inquiry: Work of DefraFound: farmers might just sack all their staff, sell all their machinery and put their entire farm into stewardship