Written questions by Dillon.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on the maintenance of bridleways to reduce the number of horses using public roads.

The Secretary of State has not had any recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on the maintenance of bridleways in relation to reducing the number of horses using public roads. Local highway authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of public rights of way, including bridleways, and for ensuring they are kept free from obstructions. They are required to prepare and maintain a Rights of Way Improvement Plan. These plans include assessments of local network conditions and plans to improve these for all users and are publicly available on local authority websites.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of recreational shooting on the economies of rural areas.

Rural areas offer significant potential for growth and are important to our economy, contributing over £259 billion a year to England alone. Defra has not made a formal assessment on contribution of recreational shooting to the rural economy; however, we know the rural economy is diverse with 86% of rural businesses unrelated to agriculture, forestry or fishing.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to require planning authorities to publish annual reports on how off-site Biodiversity Net Gain contributions by developers have been a) spent, b) their location, and c) ecological result of habitat d) creation or e) restoration.

The Environment Act 2021 established a strengthened biodiversity duty, which requires local planning authorities to publish a biodiversity report at least every five years, setting out how they have complied with the duty. As part of this report, local planning authorities are required to include actions they have taken under biodiversity net gain obligations, and information from the biodiversity gain plans they have approved. The first reporting period must end no later than 1 January 2026 with reports published within 12 weeks.

Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance the Government provides on ensuring transparent and long-term maintenance of restored habitats.

The Government has published extensive guidance on what should be covered by legal agreements for biodiversity net gain, including detail on habitat monitoring and who is responsible. There is also a set of habitat management and monitoring templates which should be used to set out how and when habitats will be monitored and reported on.

Food and Rural Affairs, what funding the Government has allocated to a) implement the Local Nature Recovery Strategy in Berkshire for financial year 2025-2026 and b) what proportion of that funding is assigned for delivery in West Berkshire.

As responsible authority for the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council has been allocated £135,500 in financial year 2025-26 to support their transition to delivery of their LNRS. Government has not prescribed how this funding will be distributed geographically within the area covered by the LNRS.

Food and Rural Affairs, what mechanism is in place to funnel Biodiversity Net Gain funding from developers into county-wide nature recovery partnerships, such as the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Partnership.

Land managers, including Local Nature Recovery partnerships (LNRPs), can sell biodiversity units to those developers who cannot achieve 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) onsite and need to go off-site. The BNG metric also provides an incentive to achieve off-site biodiversity gains in areas of strategic significance, as set out in the relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategy. The Local Investment in Natural Capital programme, funded by Defra and delivered by the Environment Agency, has provided grants of over £1 million to five local and combined authorities to create a pipeline of investable projects and develop capacity and capability to crowd in finance from private sources, including from developers. Learnings from this programme will provide guidance to Local Nature Recovery Strategies in these areas on how best to attract and allocate BNG funding and will be available to all LNRPs upon the conclusion of the programme in 2026.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government provides a) grants or b) matches-funding to encourage private businesses, landowners, and farmers in West Berkshire to participate in habitat creation and restoration.

On 1 December, the Government published our revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP25) – a clear roadmap for restoring nature. This is our long-term plan for improving the natural environment and enjoyment of it. EIP25 includes prioritised actions to help meet the ambitious Environment Act targets and sets an interim target to create or restore 250,000 hectares of a range of wildlife-rich habitat outside of protected sites by December 2030. The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund, funded by Defra and delivered by the Environment Agency, has provided grants to over 130 projects across England to attract private investment for nature recovery. These projects are plotted on an interactive map available on the Ecosystem Knowledge Network’s website: https://ecosystemsknowledge.net/neirf/neirf-project-directory-2/.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that (a) statutory Biodiversity Net Gain initiatives are implemented fully and (b) local authorities are provided with sufficient resources to monitor long-term habitat improvements.

Local planning authorities (LPAs) are provided with funding for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), including £10 million for this current financial year. The Government also funds the Planning Advisory Service to help LPAs meet their BNG obligations. LPAs can charge for monitoring activity through the legal agreements into which the developer enters .

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help support farmers and landowners in West Berkshire to participate in the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

The Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) was published in October 2025. Responsible authorities have been steered to involve farmers and landowners in preparation of their LNRS. LNRSs will help farmers and landowners to choose which agri-environment scheme options are suitable for their land. However, having land mapped in an LNRS does not compel farmers or landowners to make changes to how they use or manage their land – this will continue to be their choice.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of long-term lags between developers-funding and achievement of full habitat development under biodiversity offsetting.

The biodiversity net gain metric includes a temporal risk multiplier which takes into account the average time lag between the start of habitat works and the target outcome. This ‘time to target’ multiplier recognises and takes account of the time it takes to create different habitats and factors those into metric calculations.

Food and Rural Affairs, what support the Government plans to provide for a) community-led or b) small-scale habitat creation initiatives in areas such as West Berkshire.

The Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) sets local priorities for biodiversity and environmental improvement and proposes where action is most needed. The LNRS will guide coordinated action for nature, including through community-led and small-scale habitat creation initiatives.

Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department has issued to businesses on how they can contribute to local habitat restoration projects.

Defra has published biodiversity net gain (BNG) guidance on how a business can get involved with providing biodiversity units to developers who need to go off-site for BNG. This can either be through selling units independently on land owned, or working with partners to create habitat banks. Land managers can also combine biodiversity units with other environmental payments for the same piece of land. In addition, Projects for Nature connects corporate donations with government-screened nature recovery projects across England, which can support the delivery of our statutory biodiversity targets.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether there will be simplified a) permit systems or b) funding mechanisms provided to streamline i) community groups, ii) small landowners or iii) local conservation networks' involvement in habitat creation.

We are setting the conditions for more private investment to flow into domestic nature recovery, including by exploring how we can further incentivise the private sector to pay for nature’s services - through a Call For Evidence on Expanding the role of the private sector in nature recovery; and ensuring the integrity of UK nature markets by sponsoring the British Standards Institution to develop a suite of UK Nature Investment Standards.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government is providing additional support to crayfish companies affected by recent changes to licensing requirements.

The current licensing requirements have been in place since 2019, and there have been no recent changes. To help businesses adjust at the time, the Government allowed a two-year transition period for licensed exports of live signal crayfish, where import was legal in the destination country. This temporary measure gave businesses time to develop alternative markets such as processed or frozen products.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing the speed of the roll out of the Environmental Land Management Scheme.

Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers and nature, putting us on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. The Department now has more than half of farmers in an ELM scheme, including over 44,500 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements. It is our ambition to reopen SFI in the first half of 2026. Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier opened for applications in September 2025 through a controlled rollout. Two pioneering Landscape Recovery projects have now started long-term delivery on the ground. We are on track to spend the committed £1.8bn, the largest figure ever, on ELM schemes in 2025/26.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether her department plans to consider a legally binding target to increase the proportion of food that is UK-grown and eaten in Britain.

We have no plans for a legally binding food production target. In 2024 we were 65% self-sufficient for all food; 77% for food we can produce here – a balance that has been stable for many years. As we develop plans to support delivery of the food strategy outcomes, we are focussed on securing resilient domestic production that supports good growth and enhances domestic food security.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support the financial sustainability of small-scale abattoirs.

Defra recognises the important role small-scale abattoirs play in supporting local livestock producers and maintaining a resilient and competitive food supply chain. Defra works closely with the smaller abattoir industry including through the Small Abattoirs Working Group and the Small Abattoirs Task and Finish Group. These groups bring together government and industry representatives on a regular basis to address issues such as regulation, operational efficiency and access to skilled labour. In doing so, they provide a forum for identifying the challenges and opportunities that the sector faces, and for collaborating on practical solutions to support the sustainability, viability and resilience of small and medium sized abattoirs.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions has she held with UK a) wholesale suppliers b) distributors and c) the farming community on supporting UK agricultural and horticultural supply chains.

The Secretary of State has many discussions with a range of stakeholders. The Government’s commitment to farming and food security is steadfast, which is why we've allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. Defra regularly engages with a farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and distributors through a range of forums to discuss issues affecting the food supply chain.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect swans from harm caused by catapults in Newbury constituency.

The Government takes crimes against wildlife seriously, including those involving the use of catapults to cause harm to swans, in Newbury or anywhere else in the country. Although catapults are not listed as prohibited weapons in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, within this legislation there are a range of offences around deliberate attempts to kill, injure or inflict harm on wild birds. The Government therefore believes sufficient legislation is already in place to protect them from targeted use of catapults. Defra is also a principal funder of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) which helps prevent and detect wildlife crime by obtaining and disseminating intelligence, undertaking analysis which highlights local or national threats and directly assisting law enforcers in their investigations. However, Defra recognises the misuse of catapults is causing great concern to some local communities and are working with the Home Office to find solutions to this problem with the aim of increasing protection to our wildlife from crimes involving these weapons.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Farming Resilience Fund in supporting farmer wellbeing.

An evaluation of the Farming Resilience Fund has been completed and is due for publication before the end of this year. The survey includes a question on impact of the scheme on farmers' wellbeing.