Written questions by Bool.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on increasing domestic production of fertilisers on energy security.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the domestic production of ammonia.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what her policy is on UK CBAM for fertilisers and ammonia.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking with industry to make organic manures and slurries pelletisable.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made towards establishing a national fertiliser recording system.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure the availability of fertiliser, including in response to sudden increases in demand.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has made for red diesel availability and costs if the conflict in Iran becomes a long-term issue.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help support farmer cash flow and access to credit.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce the impact of changes to red diesel prices during peak harvest season.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, to support the agri-food sector.

The development and adoption of innovative UK agri-technologies is key to supporting the UK agri-food sector to boost farm productivity and economic growth. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and Defra work closely together to support the sector. This includes the Defra-funded Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) which is delivered by UKRI and provides grants to support innovative technologies and practices which increase farming productivity, sustainability and resilience. This Government will allocate at least £200m to FIP by 2030. This Government is also supporting the development of robotics, automation and AI which have the potential to increase productivity and reduce labour needs in agriculture and horticulture. The Regulatory Innovation Office, part of DSIT announced Robotics as one of its priorities this year and will be working with Defra on issues for the Agri-tech sector.

Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria her Department plans to use to differentiate between small and large farms in assessing eligibility for future SFI applications.

The department will publish a precise definition before the first application window opens in June.  This is one of the details we’ll be testing with key stakeholders.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of a deer management strategy.

Defra provides a wide range of support to help landowners and managers tackle deer impacts on woodlands. This includes grants for managing their impacts and for capital items, as well as funding of relevant projects, including those that facilitate landscape scale action. A dedicated Forestry Commission team of Deer Officers is in place, providing nationwide advice, facilitating grant support and encouraging landscape scale collaborative management. Natural England are leading the Sussex Woods Protected Sites Strategy pilot, focused on reducing deer impacts on protected woodlands, which includes supporting landowners and managers to work together at scale to manage deer impacts. We are considering plans for further action on deer impacts management and will outline these, including any implications for the existing regime for the licensing of managing deer at night, in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to incentivise deer management by local landowners at a landscape scale.

Defra provides a wide range of support to help landowners and managers tackle deer impacts on woodlands. This includes grants for managing their impacts and for capital items, as well as funding of relevant projects, including those that facilitate landscape scale action. A dedicated Forestry Commission team of Deer Officers is in place, providing nationwide advice, facilitating grant support and encouraging landscape scale collaborative management. Natural England are leading the Sussex Woods Protected Sites Strategy pilot, focused on reducing deer impacts on protected woodlands, which includes supporting landowners and managers to work together at scale to manage deer impacts. We are considering plans for further action on deer impacts management and will outline these, including any implications for the existing regime for the licensing of managing deer at night, in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to streamline the deer management night licensing regime.

Defra provides a wide range of support to help landowners and managers tackle deer impacts on woodlands. This includes grants for managing their impacts and for capital items, as well as funding of relevant projects, including those that facilitate landscape scale action. A dedicated Forestry Commission team of Deer Officers is in place, providing nationwide advice, facilitating grant support and encouraging landscape scale collaborative management. Natural England are leading the Sussex Woods Protected Sites Strategy pilot, focused on reducing deer impacts on protected woodlands, which includes supporting landowners and managers to work together at scale to manage deer impacts. We are considering plans for further action on deer impacts management and will outline these, including any implications for the existing regime for the licensing of managing deer at night, in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what correspondence his Department has had with the Friedrich Loeffler Institute on the development of a vaccine for Bluetongue Virus serotype 12.

Defra has not had any correspondence with the Friedrich Loeffler Institute regarding the development of a vaccine for bluetongue virus serotype 12. However, Defra continues to work closely with key domestic and international partners, including vaccine manufacturers, to monitor the availability and development of vaccines for bluetongue virus, including serotype 12.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 47160 on Food: Import Controls, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the ban on personal imports of meats and diary products from EU countries.

Defra publishes assessments of the risk of animal diseases entering Great Britain through trade in animal products at www.gov.uk/government/collections/animal-diseases-international-monitoring. Our August 2025 attitude tracker demonstrated a high level of public awareness of the animal health-related ban on personal imports of certain meat and dairy products from EU countries amongst recent travellers.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 47160 on Food: Import Controls, what steps he has taken to ensure the adequacy of signage at ports and airports relating to the ban on personal imports of meats and diary products from EU countries.

As part of our national mission to protect our food sector and farmers, we communicated the ban on personal imports of certain meats and dairy products from EU countries via a press release, social media and information on GOV.UK. We have worked in partnership with the Department of Transport, the Home Office, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, ports, airports and international travel operators to communicate the ban. We published updated posters on gov.uk for operational partners to display. Baroness Hayman met with ports, airports and international travel operators to discuss the communications, including signage, that they put in place.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 47160 on Food: Import Controls, how many seizures have been conducted related to the ban on personal imports of meats and diary products from EU countries.

We do not have information on the number of seizures relating to the ban on personal imports of certain meat and dairy products from EU countries. Border Force and local authorities are responsible for detaining and seizing illegally imported animal products detected at the border, where importers refuse to surrender them for disposal.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56079 on Agriculture: Land Use, what the geographic distribution of the land with solar panels on that is used for agricultural production is.

The statistics are based on results from the annual Defra June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. This survey covers England but no lower geographic breakdowns are available. The number of responses to the question was too small to give accurate estimates at any lower level than England only.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56079 on Agriculture: Land Use, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the statistic that 50% of land with solar panels on is used for agricultural production.

The statistics are estimates from the annual Defra June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture, a representative large scale sample survey of Defra registered farms* from across the country. Indications of accuracy in the estimates of the area of land with solar panels used/not used for agricultural production are provided below and in the published dataset https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/agricultural-land-use-in-england. 2024 hectares95% confidence intervalRelative Standard ErrorLand for solar panels also used for grazing or agricultural production3,620+/- 1,192>10 and <=20%Land for solar panels not used for agricultural production3,683+/- 1,249>10 and <=20% The Relative Standard Error (RSE) is a measure of the variation in the data, expressed as a percentage of the estimated total. Low RSE’s indicate greater reliability in the figures. The 95% confidence interval indicates the likely range of the exact figure. The standard errors which underpin both the RSE’s and the 95% confidence intervals only give an indication of the sampling error and do not take into account any other sources of survey error such as non-response bias or data entry errors. *Data only covers holdings which are registered with the Rural Payments Agency for payments or livestock purposes and have significant levels of farming activity. Holdings are only included if they have more than five hectares of agricultural land, one hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables or 0.1 hectares of protected crops, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry.