Written questions by Brandreth.

Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to the Sustainable Farming Incentive for the 2025-26 financial year; and for what reason new applications have been paused since 11 March 2025.

The farming blog published on Wednesday 12 March set out Defra’s spend over the next two years (24/25 and 25/26). These are not ring-fenced figures and have the potential to change. This showed that as of 11 March, £1.05 billion had been paid to farmers or committed for payment through existing agreements or submitted applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). The high uptake of the SFI scheme means it is fully subscribed. The decision to close the scheme to new applications was taken at that point.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) the war in Ukraine (b) the wider geopolitical situation and (c) the impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive on (i) the cashflow of farming businesses and (ii) food security.

(a)The war in Ukraine led to rising oil, fuel and energy prices, which created inflationary pressures right across the food chain. Farmers experienced higher energy and fertiliser costs; manufacturers experienced higher production costs; and importers and hauliers experienced higher transportation costs. All of these fed through to higher consumer prices. The Institute of Grocery Distribution anticipates food price inflation in 2025 to average 3.4%, with a range of 2.4 to 4.9%. Food chain businesses will be keeping a close eye on developments in Russia/Ukraine and the Middle East, and their potential to influence global energy and input prices. (b)Reliance on food supplies from Ukraine is low. Defra actively monitors risks to UK food security on an ongoing basis. The UK Food Security Report, which was published in December, examines past, current, and future trends relevant to food security to present a full and impartial analysis of UK food security. While climate and geopolitical volatility have weakened aspects of food supply stability since 2021, food availability or the quantity of food available to the UK has been maintained thanks to continued resilience in food production and the global trading system. (c)Farm businesses with existing 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. On the 11 March 2025 we published forecasts which suggest that Average Farm Business Income has risen in 2024/25 across all farm types with the exception of cereal farms.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the amount of notice the National Farmers' Union was provided with before his Department announced that the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme would be closed to new applications.

As with all demand-led schemes there comes a point when they are fully-subscribed. We ensured farmers and their representative bodies were made aware when that happened.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive were outstanding as of 12 March 2025; and what steps his Department is taking to process applications submitted before the scheme was closed.

As of the 24 March, of the applications that had been submitted for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 14,191 had received an agreement offers and 3,700 had not yet received an agreement offer.

Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of standardised access for residents of all local authorities to to Household Waste and Recycling Centres in in Strategic Authorities.

There are no plans to standardise access to Household Waste and Recycling Centres. Household Waste and Recycling Centres play an important role in helping people manage the waste they produce in a convenient and sustainable way. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 51 requires waste disposal authorities to provide places at which residents in their areas may deposit their household waste free of charge. Local Authorities are responsible for determining how best to manage and operate sites in their area, taking into consideration their local requirements.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 is being implemented in full; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the UK's drainage and gully systems to deal with increasingly volatile weather.

This Government is strongly committed to requiring standardised SuDS in new developments. We believe that this can be achieved through either improving the current planning led approach using powers now available, or commencing Schedule 3 to the FWMA 2010. A final decision on the way forward will be made in the coming months. The Government has updated the National Planning Policy Framework to encourage a more holistic approach so that developments of all sizes are expected to make use of sustainable drainage techniques where they could have drainage impacts in a way which is proportionate to the nature and scale of the scheme. This Government recognises the importance of having a robust drainage and wastewater system both now and for future demand. As part of the Environment Act 2021, water companies in England are required to produce Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs). DWMPs set out how a water company intends to improve their drainage and wastewater systems over the next 25 years, accounting for factors including growing population and changing environmental circumstances. These plans will help sewerage companies to fully assess the capacity of the drainage and wastewater network and develop collaborative solutions to current problems and future issues.