Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish further information on the combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We plan to roll out the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer during 2024, with applications opening from the summer. We will publish more information about this, and how farmers will be able to apply, ahead of applications opening. This will include setting out how farmers with existing Higher Level Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements will be able to access the new offer.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when farmers will be able to apply for the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We plan to roll out the new combined Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offer during 2024, with applications opening from the summer. We will publish more information about this, and how farmers will be able to apply, ahead of applications opening. This will include setting out how farmers with existing Higher Level Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements will be able to access the new offer.
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.
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 |
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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Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will list all Government investments in the farming sector in Christchurch constituency since 1 April 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has supported the farming and rural sector through payments under a range of schemes.
Since 1 April 2023, the RPA has released through schemes and grants approximately £326k in the Christchurch constituency. A breakdown of these figures is in the table below.
Basic Payment Scheme | Countryside Stewardship Scheme | Environmental Stewardship | Sustainable Farm Incentive | Other Grants | Total |
£218,516 | £57,616 | £21,286 | £5,602 | £22,802 | £325,822 |
There are no species recovery or landscape recovery projects funded within the Christchurch constituency.
There are no live Conservation and Enhancement Scheme agreements.
The Dorset peat project is Defra funded. However, there are no peat restoration sites within the constituency boundary – sites at Cannon Hill and Holt Heath are close to the boundary.
The only project to highlight which falls within the constituency is the Salisbury to sea (Christchurch Harbour) fish barrier removal study, which also incorporates floodplain reconnection opportunities funded by Network Rail but is being managed and contracted by Natural England in partnership with the Environment Agency.
Except for New Forest Higher Level Stewardship there are no other funds that Natural England is aware of linked to New Forest National Park which overlaps at the east boundary of the constituency.
There are Countryside Stewardship agreements funded and associated investment of time by Natural England staff locally on agri agreements and Catchment Sensitive Farming (Stour and Avon catchments) within the Christchurch constituency.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including a grant scheme for saltmarshes in the Nature for Climate Fund.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK recognises the important role that saltmarsh can play in climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Saltmarsh habitats are also richly biodiverse, benefit fish stocks and provide a crucial buffer from coastal flooding.
Building on this recognition, the UK Government is supporting blue carbon restoration efforts through various initiatives, for example by providing £640,000 funding for domestic blue carbon habitat restoration.
This includes funds to support the development of a Saltmarsh Code to help drive investment flows from the private sector towards nature. This funding has also increased the capacity of the Restoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef initiative (ReMeMaRe), helping to create a pipeline of restoration projects in saltmarsh and other key estuarine and coastal habitats.
Defra has set up the UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership in partnership with the Devolved Administrations to address evidence gaps that currently prevent the inclusion of saltmarsh habitats in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI). Inclusion of saltmarsh in the GHGI and the development of a Saltmarsh Code will allow blue carbon to be marketed and traded as a carbon offset, leveraging private investment into these vital natural carbon stores.
In addition, funding has been made available for saltmarsh restoration through the Landscape Recovery and Countryside Stewardship Environmental Land Management schemes. In the ELMS Countryside Stewardship scheme approximately 5,000 hectares of saltmarsh is being maintained or restored to a good condition.
The £750m of Nature for Climate funding is due to end in March 2025 and the Programme will be delivering against its agreed Business Case in that time. The Fund’s impact is being evaluated and any future funding for Trees, Peat and Saltmarshes will be a matter for the next Spending Review. We are continuing to explore further means of supporting saltmarsh restoration.
Asked by: Steven Bonnar (Scottish National Party - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to provide additional support for (a) energy and (b) inflationary costs for the agriculture sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Energy Bills Discount Scheme provides all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users with a baseline discount on high energy bills for 12 months from April 2023 until 31 March 2024. A higher level of support is provided to some Energy and Trade Intensive Industries that are particularly exposed to energy cost increases due to their energy and trade intensity and are therefore less able to pass these costs through to their customers due to international competition.
Tackling inflation is one of this Government’s priorities. While inflation has more than halved, it remains a challenge, which is why we continue to monitor all key agricultural commodities and work with the food industry to address the challenges they face. The UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade, and recent developments.
The Government is supporting farmers through a range of measures. In recognition of the challenges faced with inflation and rising input costs, we are updating prices in our environmental land management schemes with an average 10% uplift. We are making the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) simpler, with more choice about what farmers can do and more actions made available, to better reflect the full spectrum of farming interests. What is more, 50 new actions are being added to our environmental land management schemes, many of which support food production, making it easier for the Government’s support to fit into farmers’ business plans. Specific actions in the SFI, such as different cropping systems, better plant management methods and other Nutrient Management and Integrated Pest Management actions, will support farmers in improving soil health, reducing their reliance on costly inputs.
We are also keen to support farmers through technology to help them lower their costs. More grants will be launched this year to help farmers grow more, sell more and make their businesses more sustainable and resilient for the future. We will also look at ways to make grants and schemes even easier to access, including the potential to streamline the application process for schemes. Farmers can now apply for SFI and the Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier through one single application, meaning they will have the same actions and get the same support with less paperwork.
Full expensing, which was made permanent at Autumn Statement 2023, allows companies to claim 100% capital allowances on qualifying plant and machinery investments (for example, high tech agricultural equipment) in the year the expenditure is incurred. The Government announced at Spring Budget 2024 that we will seek to extend full expensing to assets for leasing when fiscal conditions allow and will publish draft legislation shortly.
We are continuing to keep this all under review to make sure it works for and rewards all farms in all parts of the country.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to review the effectiveness of the Environmental Land Management scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Impact and Value for Money Evaluation of ELM is a vital component of our reporting commitment under the Agriculture Act (2020) and it builds on our experience of delivering, monitoring and evaluating agri-environment schemes over the last few decades, working closely with farmers, land managers and wider industry stakeholders and research specialists. We are in the process of both developing and delivering on our monitoring and evaluation plans for each of the Environmental Land Management schemes, recognising the phased rollout of the schemes.
More specifically, in the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, land managers are supported through monitoring and site visits to track how they are delivering their outcomes, with final reporting on the impact and value for money of the SFI pilot being delivered in 2025. Monitoring and evaluation of the SFI23 offer is underway, working closely with land managers to understand their experiences in the scheme and their ability to deliver effectively, and this year we will begin utilising a mixed methods research approach using field surveys, modelling and expert assessments of the effectiveness of the sustainable management achieved under the scheme to assess the impact of this offer. Countryside Stewardship has a long history of impact monitoring and evaluation, with data collected spanning nearly 25 years for some holdings within the scheme. This work continues and will adapt and combine with the SFI monitoring and evaluation programme as the Combined Offer is realised. Within Landscape Recovery, each project is responsible for developing and delivering on their monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategy and there is also scheme-level monitoring and evaluation which is helping us learn about scheme effectiveness to enable ongoing improvements. Cross-cutting impact monitoring and evaluation will utilise various methods to establish the aggregate impacts of the schemes over the long-term and help determine the value for money of ELM as a whole.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether payments to farmers in England to rewet upland peat are sufficient (1) to offset management costs and provide income to the farmers, and (2) to ensure levels of restoration activity that are consistent with short-term and long-term targets.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Payment rates are based on the income forgone and costs to the farmer. In January, we announced that we were increasing the payment rate for rewetting moorland peat in Countryside Stewardship from £25 to £181 per hectare. This significant increase will ensure appropriate payment to farmers as well as incentivising rewetting of vitally important peatland.
The Nature for Climate Peatland Grant scheme has provided £35 million of funding to financially commit us to restoring approximately 27,000 hectares of peatland. This scheme is funding a significant proportion of our short-term target of restoring 35,000 hectares by 2025.
The Government’s Environmental Land Management schemes will help us meet our longer-term target to restore 280,000 hectares of peatland by 2050. In particular, the Landscape Recovery scheme will provide successful projects with funding to support large-scale peatland restoration. Payments made to land managers under Landscape Recovery projects will be benchmarked against rates paid for similar activities under existing Government schemes, such as Countryside Stewardship, to ensure payments to farmers are appropriate.