Written questions by Wrigley.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with water companies on sewage infiltration.

For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. Regulators are working with South West Water on their Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans and will be ensuring they look at the investment needs for the issues raised relating to reducing infiltration in their sewerage system, leaks from the system, and removing surface water. As part of its Waterfit programme, South West Water is carrying out surface water separation programmes within the catchments of Dawlish, Goodrington, Mothecombe, Millandreath & Ilfracombe, with the purpose of spill reduction and bathing water protection.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made on the potential impact of infiltration on sewage in Devon.

For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. Regulators are working with South West Water on their Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans and will be ensuring they look at the investment needs for the issues raised relating to reducing infiltration in their sewerage system, leaks from the system, and removing surface water. As part of its Waterfit programme, South West Water is carrying out surface water separation programmes within the catchments of Dawlish, Goodrington, Mothecombe, Millandreath & Ilfracombe, with the purpose of spill reduction and bathing water protection.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will end the freeze on applications for hedgerow grants.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the freeze on applications for grants on farmer confidence in the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with farmers on the freeze on applications for hedgerow grants.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made on the potential impact of hedgerow grants on the environmental land management scheme budget.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will reinstate capital grants for hedgerow work.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the pause on new applications for grants on rural employment.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the freeze on hedgerow grants on employment in the hedgerow business this winter.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the pause on new applications for grants on tree nurseries.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the freeze on applications for grants on farmer confidence in Countryside Stewardship.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the pause on new applications for grants on hedge restoration and planting.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the blog entitled An update on capital grants, published on 27 November 2024, what assessment he has made of changes to capital grants on young people starting their career in land management.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the freeze on hedgerow grant applications on ecosystem services.

The Government fully recognises the importance of hedgerow creation and the contribution of the Capital Grants scheme. In 2024 the scheme supported agreements to plant over 4,000 miles of new hedgerows across England, creating essential habitats for at-risk species of birds and mammals. In November 2024, we closed the Capital Grants scheme to new agreements following unprecedented demand. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received more applications from May to November 2024 than over the whole of the 2023-24 financial year. These applications were also worth more. The value of standalone capital applications received as of November 2024 was up 45% compared to the whole of the last financial year. This pattern risked unsustainable spending which would have impacted other schemes. The RPA has written to all farmers who have submitted or started an application to explain the position. We are forecast to spend more on capital grants this financial year than ever before. This is only possible because we have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. We currently are reviewing the Capital Grants offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation. We will provide an update shortly.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of placing a levy on pesticides.

The Government is not currently considering a levy on pesticides products.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of placing a levy for the cost of disposing pesticide products.

The Government is not currently considering a levy for the safe and legal disposal of pesticide products. All pesticide users should follow good practice in the use, storage and disposal of pesticide products, and work to reduce the amount of waste they produce, as set out in the Code of Practice for Using Plant Protection Products.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to introduce mandatory labelling on animal products.

The UK maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels, whether that be mandatory or voluntary, so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy. All food sold on the UK market must comply with food labelling rules. A public consultation on fairer food labelling was undertaken last year by the previous government. This sought views on proposals to improve and extend current mandatory method of production labelling for certain pork, chicken and egg products. The consultation also sought views on whether new rules should be introduced on country-of-origin labelling. We are now carefully considering all responses before deciding on next steps and will respond to this consultation in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has conducted an impact assessment of the decision to accelerate reduction of direct payments to farming businesses.

The Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years, including £2.4 billion in 2025/26. Accelerating the phase out of Direct Payments will allow us to focus more of this funding on Environmental Land Management schemes, which will boost nature and sustainable food production. We publish regular statistics on farm income in England, including data earlier this year looking at how farm business income has changed since the start of the agricultural transition (Monitoring the agricultural transition period in England, 2022/23 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). This release will be updated in February 2025 with the 2024/24 data. On 14 November 2024, we published our Farm Business Income statistics (Farm business income - GOV.UK), which looked at how farm business income has changed in 2023/24, including the contribution of Direct Payments and agri-environment payments to farm incomes, including analysis by farm type. Data relating to farm businesses are regularly published. Agriculture in the UK 2023 was published in June 2024. Farming evidence packs have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance (Farming statistics evidence packs - GOV.UK). These set out an extensive range of data to provide an overview of agriculture in the UK, and the contribution of farm payments to farm incomes, including analysis by sector, location in England and type of land tenure. We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the closure of Capital Grant Applications on (a) farm productivity and (b) food security.

We have allocated the largest ever budget for sustainable food production through the farming budget. In the first week of December, we paid £343 million into the rural economy, benefiting more than 31,000 farmers. After unprecedented demand, parts of the Capital Grant have been temporarily closed. Protection and Infrastructure grants, Woodland Tree Health grants, Capital Grants plans, Woodland Management Plan and Higher Tier Capital Grants all remain open. We are reviewing the offer to ensure funding goes further to improve outcomes for food security and nature conservation and will provide an update in early 2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will have discussions with the National Farmers' Union on their statistical information relating to changes to agricultural property relief.

We are listening to the sector to ensure their views are heard. Ministers and officials regularly meet with a range of farming stakeholders, including the National Farmers Union (NFU), the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), and the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA). We will continue to meet with stakeholders to ensure their views are heard.