Written questions by Wrigley.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will set a target date for reopening the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

We will be reforming the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer to direct funding towards SFI actions which are most appropriate for the least productive land and have the strongest case for enduring public investment. We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications.

Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason his Department did not give six weeks’ notice when closing Sustainable Farming Incentive applications.

To ensure fair access, and to avoid the risk of overspend, we could not give any advance notice to avoid creating a sudden increase in the level of demand. Whilst we aim to give notice where possible (and we are aware the application service mentioned this intention of 6 weeks’ notice), there was no requirement in the scheme rules for SFI24 for us to give any notice before we closed applications.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to return to budget management mechanisms from the Common Agricultural Policy.

No. The farming budget for each financial year is set through Government's Spending Reviews and managed by established in-year mechanisms.

Food and Rural Affairs, what processes his Department has in place to monitor budgeted agriculture spend.

We monitor forecasts against the current year budget on an ongoing basis and respond accordingly to maximise the amount that can be delivered. We committed to spending £2.6 billion in 24/25 and are on track to deliver that having responded to a number of demands in year. Furthermore, we have a full understanding of commitments into future years arising from multi-annual agreements. We monitor the uptake of our demand led schemes which have a budgetary impact on future years (such as SFI) on a regular basis, increasing the frequency of this as the level of commitment approaches the budget available in future years.

Innovation and Technology, if he will introduce legislation to put a statutory duty on generative AI developers to (a) complete risk assessments for and (b) mitigate risks of contributing to illegal activity.

We remain committed to introducing targeted rules on companies developing the most powerful AI models to ensure we can realise the benefits of these systems safely.The Central AI Risk Function continues to identify, assess and prepare for risks associated with AI, including the risks of AI contributing to illegal activity.The Online Safety Act also places new duties on companies that provide user-to-user services and search services that will do more to mitigate the risk of illegal content on their services.We will continue to engage with the tech sector to support them in making their technology safer.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to protect children against the risks of generative-AI content on small websites.

AI generated content is regulated by the Online Safety Act where it is shared on an in-scope service and constitutes illegal content or content which is harmful to children. Providers who publish pornographic content must protect children from that content, including where it is AI generated.In recognition of the unique risks that small but high-risk platforms pose to users, Ofcom, the online safety regulator, has established a taskforce to tackle these services. The taskforce’s aim is to proactively identify services, focusing on those posing the most severe risks of harm, and ensure compliance with the Act.

Innovation and Technology, if he will put a statutory duty on small websites to prevent putting children at risk of (a) sexual extortion, (b) grooming and (c) generating child sexual abuse images.

The Online Safety Act creates new duties on online services to protect users from being harmed by illegal content and activity. The strongest duties are to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation (CSEA) and to stop child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from being shared. The illegal content duties have been in effect from 17 March. Ofcom is the regulator for the regime and has set out steps providers can take including strong automated content moderation measures and anti-grooming measures. Ofcom will continue to develop their codes iteratively, including measures to detect, prevent and remove CSAM.

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment o strengthening protections from AI-generated CSAM by introducing a statutory duty for all Generative AI developers to (a) complete a risk assessment and (b) mitigate the risks of their products contributing to illegal activity.

AI generated child sexual abuse images are illegal material. It is an offence to produce, store or share any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse, regardless of whether the material depicts a real child or not.The Online Safety Act places new duties on companies that provide user-to-user services and search services to prevent CSAM appearing on their services, and to have systems in place to remove it quickly when it does.We also remain committed to introducing targeted rules on companies developing the most powerful AI models to ensure we can realise the benefits of these systems safely.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will hold discussions with farmers on the potential impact of changes to (a) basic payments, (b) the Sustainable Farming Initiative, (c) capital grants and (d) higher tier schemes on farming businesses.

The Secretary of State believes in the importance of continued engagement with the sector and has spoken with several farmers since his appointment. Defra ministers and officials will continue to work closely with the farming sector to develop and improve our offers to make sure they work for as many different farmers and land types as possible.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to changes to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, what support communications he plans to send to impacted farming businesses; and what support communications his Department plans to provide to organisations supporting vulnerable farmers.

A letter from Minister Zeichner was sent to all farm businesses on 12 March advising them of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive to new applications. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will be writing to impacted farm businesses shortly with more information on what this means for them. The RPA teams are also taking calls from concerned farmers, and they will continue to work with farmers on new and extant agreements. The RPA works closely with farming welfare support organisations and will continue to engage with them through existing channels.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department's objectives on support for sustainable farming have changed, in the context of the closure of the SFI scheme.

We have closed Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for new applications because the current SFI budget has been successfully allocated, with large-scale uptake of the scheme and 37,000 live SFI agreements delivering towards our environmental targets. This will allow us to align SFI with our work on the Land Use Framework and the 25-year farming roadmap to protect the most productive land and boost food security, whilst delivering for nature.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Rural Payment Agency’s ability to handle the change announced to SFIs this week.

As the principal sponsor of the RPA, Defra works closely with RPA officials at every level to provide constructive challenge and support on RPA implementation of policy changes. The RPA’s ability to implement policy changes is well understood and comprehensive planning and discussion is undertaken between the RPA and Farming and Countryside Programme to ensure that changes are implemented smoothly, including external communications and customer handling. There is full confidence and understanding of the RPAs ability to handle the recent announcement on the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department's (a) resources and (b) staff to implement his policies on (i) environment protections and (ii) food security.

Phase 1 of the Spending Review concluded in October last year and set Defra's budget for 2025-26. Phase 2 of the Spending Review is underway and will set our departmental budgets until 2028-29 for RDEL and 2029-30 for CDEL. All departments are being asked to find savings and efficiencies in their budgets in an effort to ensure all public money is focused on the Government’s priorities. For 2025-26 the department has carried out an intensive exercise to ensure resources and staff have been allocated to priorities, including environmental protection and food security. Once the department has received its spending review settlement, we will finalise allocations for environmental protection and food security from 2026-27 until 2029-30.

If he will take steps to ensure that UK General Product Safety Rules (GPSR) are compliant with EU GPSR rules.

The UK enjoys a high level of product safety. As outlined in the Government’s response to the Product Safety Review consultation, undertaken by the previous Government, we will now develop options for further consultation on updating the UK’s product safety framework. Decisions taken by the Government on regulations will be focused on supporting growth across the UK. We will draw on evidence gathered through our strong relationships with stakeholders, including industry, trade associations and consumer groups when considering any future changes to product safety regulation.

Pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 34683 on Universal Credit: Childcare, if she will have discussions with claimants on the potential merits of establishing definitions for those terms.

The Government recognises that childcare needs vary from customer to customer and area to area, and we are committed to working with the Department for Education to increase availability so that we can support customers’ varied needs. At all times we want work coaches to ensure the requirements they impose on customers are reasonable given the customer’s capability and circumstance, and they do this through engaging with customers. There are times where the customer’s circumstances are such that both work search and work availability requirements must be switched off completely for a period of time, known as easements. This includes, for example, customers caring for a child in considerable distress. Work coaches can also use their discretion to switch off requirements when a customer’s child is ill in hospital or when they have other temporary childcare responsibilities.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of aligning UK General Product Safety Rules (GPSR) with EU GPSR rules.

The UK enjoys a high level of product safety. As outlined in the Government’s response to the Product Safety Review consultation, undertaken by the previous Government, we will now develop options for further consultation on updating the UK’s product safety framework. Decisions taken by the Government on regulations will be focused on supporting growth across the UK. We will draw on evidence gathered through our strong relationships with stakeholders, including industry, trade associations and consumer groups when considering any future changes to product safety regulation.

Food and Rural Affairs, how he plans to support upland farmers who were intending to move onto the Sustainable Farming Incentive following the closure of the scheme.

We fully recognise the importance of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for upland farmers – and we strongly want the scheme to be available to them as we move forward. We have closed SFI for new applications because the current SFI budget has been successfully allocated, with large-scale uptake of the scheme and 37,000 live SFI agreements delivering towards our environmental targets. We will be reforming the SFI offer to direct funding towards SFI actions which are most appropriate for the least productive land and have the strongest case for enduring public investment. We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications. In the meantime, as announced on 25th February, we’re increasing HLS payment rates. We believe this uplift better reflects the contributions made by those with HLS agreements and will support the continued protection and management of these sites. We will also open the rolling application window for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier this summer and have published information that sets out what upland farmers can do now to prepare to apply for CSHT.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive on (a) small farms, (b) upland farmers and (c) commoners.

We publish regular statistics on Farm Business Income. Farming evidence packs for example have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance. These set out an extensive range of data to provide an overview of agriculture in the UK. We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to help farmers that aren't receiving financial support from Government environmental schemes.

The Government’s commitment to our farmers remains steadfast. It’s why we have committed £5 billion to the farming budget over two years – more money than ever for sustainable food production. We have allocated £60 million to the Farming Recovery Fund for farmers affected by extreme weather, and £208 million to protect against disease threats. We have also recently announced further policies including extending the Seasonal Worker visa route for five more years, backing British produce in government catering contracts, and investing £110 million in agri-technology. A new commissioner for the tenant farming sector will be appointed, and a veterinary agreement with the EU will be sought to ease export red tape. The government will also protect farmers from low welfare trade deals and lower energy bills by connecting renewable energy to the National Grid. Other measures include a land-use framework for food security and nature recovery, a Cross-Government Rural Crime Strategy, and a British Infrastructure Council to drive private investment in rural areas.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Initiative on food security.

This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period. Farm businesses with existing Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements or submitted applications will see no change to their payments due to the announced closure of SFI. Forecasts published this week suggest that at the all-farm level agri-environment scheme payments are predicted to have increased substantially in 24/25. Food security requires a long-term picture of resilience to shocks while the closure of SFI is a temporary measure, 30,000 businesses are already being supported through SFI with more in other schemes and will be for the next three years Now is the right time for a reset: supporting farmers, delivering for nature and targeting public funds fairly and effectively towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. This Government has recently announced a raft of new policies to help boost profits for farmers which will support continued food security. The revised capital grants will be reopened, providing access to items which boost farm productivity. We are extending the Seasonal Worker visa route for five more years, backing British produce in government catering contracts, and investing £110 million in agri-technology. A new commissioner for the tenant farming sector will be appointed, and a veterinary agreement with the EU will be sought to ease export red tape. The government will also protect farmers from low welfare trade deals and lower energy bills by connecting renewable energy to the National Grid. Other measures include a land-use framework for food security and nature recovery, a Cross-Government Rural Crime Strategy, and a British Infrastructure Council to drive private investment in rural areas. The Government is also committed to making the supply chain fairer, with upcoming reviews on the pig, egg, poultry, and fresh produce sectors.