Every parliamentary written question tabled by Tim Farron this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 201–220 of 235 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on ensuring all planning decisions will support nature and climate targets.
The Department works closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to deliver planning reforms with regular discussions on how planning can improve outcomes for nature whilst enabling the development of housing and infrastructure.
Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing the farming budget to reflect the Government’s nature and climate targets.
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues.
Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on ensuring that the plan for growth includes protections for (a) wildlife and (b) nature.
This Government is fully committed to ensuring that development contributes to nature’s recovery and delivers a win-win for both nature and the economy. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will establish a Nature Restoration Fund. This will create a more efficient and effective way for obligations related to our most important sites and species to be discharged at a scale that brings about the greatest environmental benefits. The Autumn Budget 2024 committed £45 million in funding to support the establishment of the Fund.
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to hold a public consultation on the Air Quality Information System Review's conclusions and recommendations.
The Government recognizes the importance of effectively communicating air quality information to the public, which is why we conducted a comprehensive review of the Air Quality Information System (AQIS). A large evidence base has been assimilated which gives a strong foundation for taking forward solutions. The final report and accompanying evidence will be published shortly. We will not be conducting a public consultation on the recommendations of this review. They will inform air quality elements of the revised Environmental Improvement Plan and will be incorporated into a revised Air Quality Strategy in due course.
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of short-term land use to improve soil health and resilience to droughts and floods.
Defra currently has research programmes underway on the impact of different agricultural land management options. The Government recognises the importance of healthy, functioning soil for resilience against the impacts of climate change, such as flooding and drought. The rich variety of soils across England need to be managed with particular consideration given to the soil type, climate, land use and desired function. While these decisions are made at farm level, they need the right frameworks, incentives and conditions from Government and the wider food chain. That is why the Government is currently consulting on our vision for land use in England, which will inform the development of a Land Use Framework.
Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with his European counterparts on (a) reducing regional and (b) achieving international commitments to reduce air pollution.
The United Kingdom is playing an active role in engagement with European counterparts and other countries in reducing air pollution.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take through the Environmental Improvement Plan to consider the potential impact of air pollution on public health.
The Government has recently concluded a rapid review of the existing Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23). As you can easily see, we published a statement of the rapid review’s key findings on 30 January 2025, to be followed by publication of a revised EIP later this year. The revised EIP will include a series of interventions to reduce emissions of air pollutants so that everyone’s exposure to air pollution is reduced.
Food and Rural Affairs, how much has been paid to farmers to support solar projects since 2016.
The second round of the Improving Farm Productivity grant was launched under the Farming Investment Fund in January 2024 and included an offer for solar PV equipment. It is early days, but to date, over £31,000 has been paid out to farmers and horticultural businesses. The window for submitting full applications for this scheme remains open until 31 July 2025, after which Defra will continue to pay out to applicants for their projects. Successful applicants can make up to three claims once they have a Grant Funding Agreement in place but can claim as soon as parts of a project are complete. Defra’s focus is on ensuring farming becomes more profitable as the best way to make farming businesses viable for the future. This will ensure the long-term food security this country needs.
Food and Rural Affairs, how many people have applied for the Improving Farming Productivity Grant; how many of those applications were successful; and how much has been paid out per (a) grant category and (b) round.
The total number of full applications received for Improving Farm Productivity to-date is 413. Of those appraised, 204 have been offered a grant to the value of over £23 million, 84 applications have been rejected or withdrawn, and 125 are currently in appraisal. A total of over £11 million has been paid out from the scheme to-date across both rounds; £9.4 million from Round 1 applications, and £1.6 million from Round 2. All applications in Round 1 were for robotic equipment, whereas in Round 2 £1.5 million has been paid out for solar projects, and £31,000 for robotic and automatic equipment. We do not currently categorise applications in any greater detail. Successful applicants can make up to three claims once they have a Grant Funding Agreement in place but can claim as soon as parts of a project are completed.
Food and Rural Affairs, how much has been paid to farmers to improve environmental sustainability since 2016.
The Government spent £3.745 billion on Environmental Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and the Sustainable Farming Incentive from 2016 up to 28 February 2025 to improve environmental sustainability. An additional £36 million has been paid through the England Woodland Creation Offer.
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to provide top-up payments to farmers to compensate for the loss of direct payments.
The Government announced the reductions it intends to apply to delinked payments for 2025. The Government is accelerating the end of the era of payouts to large and wealthy landowners simply for owning land. The fastest reductions in subsidies will be to ...
Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the value of government subsidies to farmers in 2024.
The Government has committed to support farmers through a budget of £5 billion over the next two years, including £2.6 billion in 2024/25.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that farmers can engage in environmentally sustainable farming projects during winter 2024-25.
Environmental Land Management schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery all continuing. There are now over 60,000 live agreements across these ...
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farmers with managing flooding in winter 2024-25.
The Farming Recovery Fund was set up to support farmers affected by unprecedented extreme wet weather last winter (October 2023 to March 2024). Through these one-off recovery payments, £57.5 million has now been paid to over 12,700 farm businesses to help...
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the level of funding available to farmers in the next two years.
In the Budget announced last month, the Government committed £5 billion to the farming budget over two years, including more money than ever for sustainable food production: £1.8 billion for environmental land management schemes in 2025/26. This enables u...
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on the timeline for announcing the phase-out of direct payments under the Basic Payment Scheme.
There is no change to the timeline for phasing out delinked payments. We plan to pay delinked payments each year from 2024 to 2027.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers with the phase-out of the direct payments under the Basic Payment Scheme.
The Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years, including £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our countr...
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of changes in levels of subsidies for farmers since 5 July 2024.
In October, the Government announced that it intends to accelerate the end of the era of payouts to large and wealthy landowners simply for owning land. The fastest reductions in subsidies will be to those who historically received the largest payments. F...
Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of changes in the levels of subsidies for farmers in the next two years.
In October, the Government announced that it intends to accelerate the end of the era of payouts to large and wealthy landowners simply for owning land. The fastest reductions in subsidies will be to those who historically received the largest payments. F...
Food and Rural Affairs, how many farm holdings are worth more than £1,000,000, by constituency.
Defra does not hold financial data for farms at holding level.