Written questions by Smith.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing import restrictions on enriched cages for laying hens, pullets and breeder layers.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 18 March 2026 to the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, PQ UIN 120331.

Food and Rural Affairs, what reassurance she can give to farmers whose cashflow relies on Higher Tier payments arriving in early December and who have not received their payments yet from the Rural Payments Agency.

The 2025 payment window opened on 1 December, and by mid-December around three quarters of eligible farmers had already received their Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship payments. The Agency continues to work hard improving payment performance and to deliver all remaining eligible Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship payments as quickly as possible.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the Rural Payments Agency’s performance in delivering Higher Tier and other payments in early December in line with past expectations.

The 2025 payment window opened on 1 December, and by mid-December around three quarters of eligible farmers had already received their Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship payments. The Agency continues to work hard improving payment performance and to deliver all remaining eligible Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship payments as quickly as possible.

Food and Rural Affairs, what coordination processes are in place between (a) the Rural Payments Agency, (b) the Animal and Plant Health Agency and (c) other arms-length bodies of her Department to (i) reduce administrative pressures on and (ii) enable simultaneous inspections of farmers.

Our arm’s-length bodies are implementing more risk-based approaches for inspections and increasing use of remote monitoring tools, reducing administrative burdens on farmers who are doing the right thing. We are also implementing a more advice-led approach, supporting farmers to meet regulatory requirements. To further reduce administrative pressures, arm’s-length bodies have created online systems, such as the Animal Disease Movement Licensing Service. This enables livestock keepers to submit movement license applications online for bluetongue and avian influenza, streamlining the process and reducing paperwork. We support our regulators to share intelligence. For example, we rolled out an app for field officers to share information on regulatory issues. Additionally, RPA and APHA co-ordinate regulatory visits where possible. Cattle identification visits are aligned when possible with TB tests, and where sheep identification visits coincide with APHA work, these are completed by APHA. These actions aim to ease burden on farmers with fewer visits overall.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) are responded to within the appropriate time frame; how many complaints have been recorded against the RPA each year for the past five years; and what processes the RPA is putting into place in order to deliver the next generation of the Sustainable Farming Incentive effectively.

The Rural Payments Agency RPA) are supporting Defra as they continue to develop the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive. This includes fully considering deliverability and opportunities to simplify scheme administration. The RPA administers a wide range of services, including applications for Grants and subsequent payments, applications for cattle documentation to support animal traceability requirements and applications for licences. Performance is reported each year within the RPA Annual Report and Accounts within the Performance Overview section. This provides the most recent public information across all areas of the Agency’s delivery. The table below shows the number of complaints received by the RPA over the last 5 years. YearNumber of Complaints Received*2020 / 20216572021 / 20224972022 / 20234402023 / 20243492024 / 2025322 *Between 01/04 and 31/03 of each year.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that supermarkets are required to use packaging that is recyclable through household recycling systems; and whether she has considered taking legislative steps to promote the use of such packaging.

The Government is taking several steps to incentivise the use of use or recyclable packaging by supermarkets and other producers.Under the UK wide Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) scheme, which came into effect on 1 January 2025, producers are incentivised to reduce their material footprint and use easier to recycle packaging by being required to bear the end-of-life costs associated with packaging that they place on the market. The Scheme Administrator, PackUK, can modulate (increase or decrease) the household packaging waste disposal fees for each category of packaging a producer supplies. This will reflect the environmental sustainability of the packaging and provide an incentive to the producer to use more environmentally sustainable packaging.Additionally, under Simpler Recycling, every household and workplace (such as businesses, schools, and hospitals) across England will be able to recycle the same materials in the following core groups: metal; glass; plastic: paper and card; food waste; garden waste (household only). This includes cartons (as part of the plastics recyclable waste stream). More consistent collections will help reduce contamination, improve material quality and boost recycling rates.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to expand testing capacity for the bluetongue virus.

All diagnostic testing for bluetongue virus is conducted at the bluetongue national reference laboratory at The Pirbright Institute. Current testing capacity is sufficient to meet the demands for disease control and movement testing. Nevertheless, Pirbright has the provisions to expand its testing capacity, if required, to meet higher demand. The Official Laboratory in Weybridge is also designated by Defra for the purpose of surveillance and post-movement tests for bluetongue if required which provides additional capacity.

Food and Rural Affairs, if Pirbright lab will prioritise blood samples from sheep farmers in northern England ahead of the Kelso ram sales on 12 September 2025.

All pre-movement tests for bluetongue virus performed at Pirbright are reported within three working days of receipt, with no prioritisation given to particular samples. Pirbright has the provisions to expand its testing capacity, if required, to meet higher demand.

Food and Rural Affairs, what the turn around time for results on livestock samples at the Pirbright lab has been in the latest period for which data is available.

The Pirbright Institute is the UK national reference laboratory and provides a commercial testing service five days a week. Results from submissions from private vets are reported within three working days from the time samples are received at the lab, as stated on Pirbright’s website.

Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of waiting times for processing (a) applications to and (b) the release of funds from the Farm Equipment and Technology Fund in the past year.

a) The application window for Productivity and Slurry FETF 2024 grants closed on the 07 April 2024; the application window for Animal Health and Welfare FETF 2024 closed on the 01 May 2024.The majority of Productivity applicants received their Grant Funded Agreement offer on 24 May 2024 totalling a wait time of approximately 7 weeks.The majority of Slurry applicants received their Grant Funded Agreement offer on 23 May 2024 totalling a wait time of approximately 7 weeks.The majority of Animal Health and Welfare applicants received their Grant Funded Agreement offer on 29 May 2024 totalling a wait time of approximately 4 weeks. b) More than 70% of all FETF 2024 claims paid to date have been processed within 30 working days.