Written questions by Morello.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that newly qualified midwives in Dorset can secure employment at local NHS trusts upon completing their training.

Decisions about the employment of newly qualified midwives is a matter for individual National Health Service trusts, including in Dorset. Trusts manage their recruitment at a local level to ensure they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support research and development in more efficient and sustainable (a) tractor attachments and (b) harvesting machinery.

The Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) provides competitive funding to research projects developing innovative practices and technologies, including efficient and sustainable attachments for tractors and harvesting machinery. This has included support the development of, for example, electronic weeding attachments and crop harvesting robots for strawberries, courgettes and asparagus. An additional £42.6 million of FIP funding will be available from 2025/2026.

Food and Rural Affairs, what incentives are available for farmers to invest in innovative irrigation systems that enhance water efficiency in controlled environment agriculture.

We are committed to supporting all farming sectors to increase levels of productivity whilst increasing their sustainability and resilience. We are looking carefully at how to position further investment and support to enable the delivery of this Government's objectives, including on water management. We plan to simplify and rationalise our grant funding, ensuring that grants deliver the most benefit for food security and nature. The forthcoming round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund, to launch in Spring 2025, will support the uptake of innovative technology and equipment that is commercially available. The scheme has historically offered grants for water management equipment and will be open to farmers across England. The full list of eligible equipment will be published within the scheme guidance ahead of the scheme launch. We will confirm any further future grant rounds in due course following the forthcoming Spending Review.

If he will make an assessment of the level of availability of funding for newly qualified midwives at Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Decisions on the level of funding available for hiring newly qualified midwives is a matter for individual National Health Service trusts. Trusts manage their recruitment at a local level to ensure they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.While we have no plans to make a specific assessment of Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, we are committed to recruiting the staff the NHS needs across all parts of the country to get patients seen on time. In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.

What assessment his Department has made of the average cost to student midwives of (a) unpaid clinical placement hours and (b) student loan debt; and whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of providing additional financial support to student midwives.

No such assessment has been made. Students undertaking pre-registration midwifery courses can access support from Student Finance England (SFE). This includes payment for tuition fees, a partially means-tested loan for living costs and, where applicable, other grants, such as for childcare.The Government has announced that the maximum loans and grants for living and other costs from SFE will increase by forecast inflation, by 3.1% for the 2025/26 academic year, based on the RPIX inflation index.In addition to support provided by SFE, eligible midwifery students receive a non-repayable grant of £5,000 per year via the NHS Learning Support Fund. Further financial support is also available for childcare, dual accommodation costs, and travel.Funding arrangements are reviewed annually ahead of the start of each academic year.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the temporary closure of capital grants within the Sustainable Farming Incentive on (a) the Great Big Dorset Hedge project and (b) other community-led environmental initiatives.

Defra paused the standalone Capital Grant scheme, which includes grants to plant hedgerows, due to unprecedented demand. Defra announced on 24 February that all applications submitted before the scheme paused to new applications will be processed and funding will be granted to eligible applicants, including those who want to plant hedgerows. Defra does not intend to assess the impact of the temporary pause as this was a short period to re-assess the affordability of the scheme.

Food and Rural Affairs, what funding opportunities his Department offers farmers to introduce precision agriculture tools.

The Government is committed to supporting farmers in adopting innovative technologies to improve productivity and sustainability. The Accelerating Development of Practices and Techniques (ADOPT) Fund, which will open for applications in the spring, provides funding for on-farm trials of new technologies and techniques. This can include precision agriculture tools [such as GPS-guided machinery, variable-rate application systems, and remote sensing technology]. In addition, the forthcoming round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF), to launch in Spring 2025, will support the uptake of innovative technology and equipment that is commercially available. The scheme will be open to farmers across England and a list of eligible equipment will be published within the scheme guidance ahead of its launch.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the expansion of domestic manufacturing of (a) tractors, (b) combine harvesters and (c) precision agriculture technology.

Domestic adoption of precision farming technologies including, for example, tractor mounted drills, inter row hoes and weeders and camera guided spot sprayers, has been supported by the Farming Equipment & Technology Fund (FETF), that provides grants towards the cost of innovative equipment that is commercially available. A round of FETF will open to farmers across England in Spring 2025. Through the Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) fund we are also providing grants for farmer-led demonstration trials of newly emerging technologies, so farmers may have greater confidence to invest in further advances to improve productivity and profitability. A range of measures is being considered through the development of the Government’s Industrial Strategy to benefit UK technology and equipment manufacturers and deliver growth.

Food and Rural Affairs, what support his Department offers young individuals seeking to start their own farming enterprises.

Attracting bright new talent into land-based careers and having a skilled workforce in place is vital for the future of UK food and farming. Defra works closely with The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH) which is encouraging young people and new entrants into farming in its capacity as an industry led professional body for the farming industry. This includes leading a cross-industry initiative to address common negative misconceptions about the sector and providing free TIAH membership for students. TIAH is also developing online capabilities to support matching mentees with mentors, and those looking for land with those who wish to provide access to land. Furthermore, the Government has launched Skills England to ensure there is a comprehensive suite of apprenticeships, training and technical qualifications for individuals and employers to access, which are aligned with skills gaps and what employers need. It will work with its partners to ensure that regional and national skills needs are met.

Media and Sport, how much (a) funding and (b) loans her Department has provided to professional rugby union clubs since 2020.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and our arm’s-length bodies, Sport England and UK Sport, do not provide direct funding to professional rugby union clubs.Since 2020, DCMS has provided loans to rugby union clubs via the Sport Survival Package (SSP). This package of emergency funding was provided to support organisations who were negatively impacted by Covid-19 restrictions to fulfil their sporting commitments, including Premiership Rugby League and RFU Championship clubs.SSP loans were distributed to 13 Premiership rugby clubs (total value of £123.81 million) and seven Championship clubs (total value of £4.84 million).DCMS is not able to comment on repayments of individual borrowers or leagues given the commercial sensitivity.As well as loans, DCMS provides the majority of support for grassroots rugby through Sport England. Sport England has awarded the Rugby Football Union, the governing body for rugby union in England, £13.86 million for the period 2022-27 as one of Sport England’s long-term system partners to support grassroots rugby union.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to help encourage the adoption of agroforestry systems where crops are planted among trees to help improve (a) biodiversity and (b) resilience.

Defra recognises that agroforestry provides an important opportunity to increase the number of trees on farms, providing many environmental benefits, while maintaining agricultural production. The key steps the Government is taking are: Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier: This scheme provides funding for agroforestry practices, encouraging farmers to integrate trees into their farming systems to improve environmental outcomes and farm resilience. The options include maintaining very low and low density in-field agroforestry on more sensitive land and medium and high density in-field agroforestry, with payment rates of £248 to £849 per hectare per year.Agroforestry Plan (PA4): Farmers can receive £1268.08 to complete an agroforestry plan to support planning, creating, and managing agroforestry systems. This includes specialist advice from Forestry Commission or Natural England advisers.Sustainable Farming Incentive: This scheme provides funding for agroforestry practices, encouraging farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices that improve soil health, reduce erosion, and enhance biodiversity. The options include maintaining very low density and low density in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land, with payment rates of £248 to £385 per hectare per year. Schemes are being rolled out in a controlled manner. Due to demand some Capital Grants are temporarily paused and expected to reopen in summer 2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, what support his Department provides for large-scale farms transitioning to agroecological approaches.

Agroecological practices promote sustainable and resilient approaches to farming. This aligns with the goals of the government’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which will fund improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience. We consider much of the funding under our ELM schemes as supporting agroecological practices. As announced in October 2024, Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. ELM remains at the centre of our offer for farmers and will be funded by the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history of £1.8 billion. This enables us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to collaborate with educational institutions to provide apprenticeship opportunities in the agricultural sector.

The Department for Education (DfE) works closely with education providers and key partners such as Landex, the membership body for land-based education providers, to understand the challenges in delivering agricultural education and what support is needed to ensure everyone has access to high quality skills training. There are 39 apprenticeships available for delivery in agriculture, environmental and animal care. To support more apprenticeship opportunities for young people the DfE provides £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18, and up to age 24 for apprentices with an education, health and care plan or who have been in local authority care. We are working with industry and DfE to understand how the agricultural and horticultural sectors can make better use of the available apprenticeship system.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of mixing farming practices that integrate livestock and crop production to improve soil health.

Defra has made several assessments via R&D addressing the effectiveness of mixing farming practices which integrate livestock and crop production to improve soil health, focussing on comparing integrated crop and livestock systems with conventional cropping systems. Some of this ongoing research is delivered collaboratively via EU programmes, which also address circularity in mixed systems and have an emphasis on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to implement alternative mechanisms to help support farmers with (a) hedgerow planting and (b) restoration projects following the suspension of capital grants under the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Defra announced on 24 February that the standalone Capital Grant scheme will re-open in the summer. The Capital Grant scheme will continue to offer funding to support hedgerow planting and restoration projects. In addition, Defra offers a range of other grants to support capital works which benefit the environment which are open now.

What estimate her Department has made of the number of farmers in West Dorset who will be affected by the proposed changes to Inheritance Tax, including Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief.

The Government has published information about the reforms to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms. The Chancellor also recently wrote to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee regarding the APR reforms; the letter can be accessed at: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/. It is expected that up to around 2,000 estates across the UK will be affected by the changes to APR and BPR in 2026-27, with around half of those being claims that involve AIM shares. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) are expected to be unaffected by these reforms. In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill. Information from claims is not recorded to enable regional or constituency-level breakdown of the number of estates expected to be affected. For more information, please see my recent letter to the Chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/46267/documents/232537/default/.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has commissioned research into the scalability of vertical farming practices.

The Government recognises that vertical farming (as part of Controlled Environment Horticulture) is a highly productive and valuable component of our wider agricultural system. As part of our mission-driven government, we are now considering how we can achieve our ambitious, measurable and long-term goals for all our farming sectors, including horticulture.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing (a) fiscal and (b) regulatory incentives to (i) support UK-based agricultural machinery manufacturers and (ii) reduce reliance on imported agricultural equipment.

The Farming Innovation Programme funds research and innovation to offer new technology, equipment and practices that will support development of UK businesses and deliver solutions for farmers. Further grants like the Farming Equipment & Technology Fund (FETF) have helped ensure these UK-developed technologies can be adopted to support UK agriculture. We continue to work with industry to explore and enhance the full range of levers available to support UK agri-innovation and technology growth.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of promoting the adoption of AI-driven monitoring systems in agriculture.

The Government is committed to supporting farmers in adopting innovative technologies to improve productivity and sustainability. The Accelerating Development of Practices and Techniques (ADOPT) Fund, which will open for applications in the spring, provides funding for on-farm trials of new technologies and techniques. This can include precision agriculture tools [such as GPS-guided machinery, variable-rate application systems, and remote sensing technology]. In addition, the forthcoming round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF), to launch in Spring 2025, will support the uptake of innovative technology and equipment that is commercially available. The scheme will be open to farmers across England and a list of eligible equipment will be published within the scheme guidance ahead of its launch.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the adoption of hydroponic systems among traditional farmers.

The Government is committed to supporting farmers in adopting innovative technologies to improve productivity and sustainability. The Accelerating Development of Practices and Techniques (ADOPT) Fund, which will open for applications in the spring, provides funding for on-farm trials of new technologies and techniques. This may include trials exploring the application of hydroponics in various farming environments.