Written questions by Morgan.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support community farms.

We welcome community farms in England as they give local communities a chance to get involved in the countryside. Community farms, like any other farm, may be eligible for a variety of grants. Depending on the setup of the community farm, projects may be eligible for the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive. Our ELM schemes provide fairer support to smaller farms, and farmers and land managers can choose the scheme or schemes that work best for their business. To work out what’s available, you can visit the ‘funding for farmers, growers and land managers’ landing page on GOV.UK.

Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to Question 24518 on Farming Recovery Fund, tabled on 16 January 2025 by the hon. Member for North Shropshire.

A response to Question 24518 is being prepared and will be provided as soon as possible. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of compensation protocols for birds culled to control avian influenza.

Compensation paid for birds culled by HM Government for disease control purposes is designed to promote prompt reporting of suspicion of disease and is only payable for healthy birds as set out in the Animal Health Act 1981. There is no compensation available for sick birds or birds that have died. Compensation is not paid for consequential losses, including business interruption caused by control measures, nor for eggs or poultry meat. In response to the unprecedented outbreaks of avian influenza in October 2022 Defra’s approach to compensation was updated to involve earlier assessment of the number of healthy birds and swifter calculation of compensation. This allows Defra to provide earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation; better reflects the impact of outbreaks on premises; and leads to swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures. Defra’s approach to compensation was recently subject to a judicial review, and was found to be lawful on appeal. Compensation policy will continue to be kept under regular review.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support businesses impacted by outbreaks of avian influenza.

The UK poultry sector is highly resilient, adaptable and continues to supply healthy and affordable products in spite of the many challenges it has faced in recent years including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and Avian Influenza outbreaks. In autumn 2024 Defra announced a package of measures to help farmers to deal with the impact of any future avian influenza outbreaks and to provide certainty and stability to farmers in the UK’s poultry and egg sectors. These included: - The introduction of legislation to allow free-range eggs to continue to be labelled as such for the duration of mandatory housing measures, reducing costs on producers and enabling them to continue to trade fairly with imported eggs. This came into force on 23 January 2025.- A consultation on introducing similar measures for the labelling of free-range poultry meat during mandatory housing measures. The consultation closed on 16 December 2024. Responses are currently being analysed and a summary of responses will be published in due course. We continue to work closely with the poultry and egg sectors and to monitor these markets for any supply issues that may arise as a result of avian influenza outbreaks.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help farmers insure against the risk of avian influenza outbreaks.

The UK poultry sector is highly resilient and adaptable and continues to supply healthy and affordable products in spite of the many challenges it has faced in recent years including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and avian influenza outbreaks. Following difficult avian influenza seasons in 2021/22 and 2022/23, poultry and egg producers have made the department aware of the challenges that some have faced in both obtaining suitable insurance products and the increased cost of such insurance. Defra has been working with both producers and the insurance industry to seek market-based solutions to this situation. In addition, the department continues to remind producers that they are responsible for the on-farm management of their flocks and should take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of an outbreak occurring. Having strong biosecurity measures in place, and maintaining them year-round, significantly reduces the risk of infection on site.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 2 January 2025 to Question 20325 on Flood Control: Finance, when his Department plans to begin the consultation on a review of the formula that allocates flood defence funding.

We will launch a consultation in the coming months which will include a review of the existing flood funding formula to ensure that the challenges facing businesses and rural and coastal communities are adequately taken into account when delivering flood protection.

Food and Rural Affairs, what payments have been made under the Frequently Flooded Allowance; and (a) where and (b) when each payment was made.

The list of projects to receive funding from the first round of the Frequently Flooded Allowance was announced under the previous Government in 2023 and can be found at Frequently Flooded Allowance: Funding for repeatedly flooded communities - GOV.UK. The Environment Agency is best placed to provide detailed information about each project.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that all eligible communities receive funding under the Frequently Flooded Allowance.

Protecting all communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities. We will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be agreed by the Environment Agency over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers affected by flooding who have not received payments under the Farming Recovery Fund.

The Government inherited flood assets in their worst condition on record following years of underinvestment by the previous Government – only 92% of the Environment Agency’s 38,000 high consequence assets are currently at required condition. To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion over 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. The government also announced an additional £50 million of investment into internal drainage boards, as part of the one-off £75 million Internal Drainage Board (IDB) Fund, supporting farmers and rural communities from the impacts of flooding, and £60 million in payments to farmers through the Farming Recovery Fund, impacted by unprecedented extreme wet weather last winter (October 2023 to March 2024). The new Flood Resilience Taskforce provides oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season. Additionally, Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8 billion for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to cover a range of objectives including support to improve resilience to flooding.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Farming Recovery Fund, if he will publish (a) the number of individual payments made by and (b) total costs of those payment to each local authority area for each year since the fund was established.

Farming Recovery Fund payments are made directly to farmers. The Farming Recovery Fund is activated by the Government of the day and has been activated in 2015, 2019, 2020 and again in 2024 depending on the scale and impacts of the flooding, these are detailed below: - In 2015 when Storm Desmond produced 341mm of rainfall at Honister Pass in Cumbria in 24 hours.- In 2019/2020, a flash flood in North Yorkshire affecting a single parish and the collapse of a flood embankment in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, and widescale flooding across central and eastern England.- In 2024 an expanded fund following Storms Babet, Henk and the exceptional wet weather during the six-month period October 2023 to March 2024 Each iteration of the Farming Recovery Fund is different depending on when, where and what the weather conditions were which caused the flooding. Farmers were able to apply for these funds the details of which are set out below. RegionFRF 2015FRF 2019FRF 2020NumberAmountNumberAmountNumberAmountBerkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire1£9,120.00 Cheshire 1£3,948.94Cumbria530£4,647,445.22 Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire 18£78,834.384£28,006.84East Anglia1£1,530.00 East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire8£34,027.492£5,515.781£1,361.30Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area1£2,924.201£21,387.5035£241,976.01Greater Manchester7£33,124.52 Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire 6£52,665.3270£362,580.74Inner London - West1£3,603.00 1£1,730.00Lancashire129£978,167.39 Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 1£5,829.50 Lincolnshire1£19,846.0030£165,887.13 North Yorkshire212£1,507,147.2036£266,871.18 Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear60£425,640.21 Shropshire and Staffordshire1£20,000.00 29£120,655.82South Yorkshire1£514.9012£39,280.42 Tees Valley and Durham15£106,270.76 West Yorkshire27£181,071.49 Total payments to English registered businesses995£7,970,432.38106£636,271.21141£760,259.65Paid for land in England but business registered in other UK country4£31,867.98 3£7,368.36Grand total999£8,002,300.36106£636,271.21144£767,628.01 We will publish data for the 2024 Farming Recovery Fund once payments have been finalised. The 2024 Farming Recovery Fund has paid around 12,700 farming businesses £57.5 million, to date. Recovery payments were always intended as an exceptional intervention. Defra is working with the Flood Resilience Taskforce to develop a longer-term solution to the impacts of our changing climate on the agricultural sector. We are also investing in environmental land management schemes which include actions to improve flood resilience and water management on farms.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it compulsory for developers to form agreements with water companies for the adoption of new-build drainage systems.

Section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act has not yet been implemented in England. Should it be implemented, all new sewerage will be built to an agreed standard and automatically adopted. The powers to adopt existing sewerage have now expired. Therefore, new legislation will be required to enable mandatory adoption of this sewerage. Water companies can currently adopt sewerage voluntarily. The Government has included private sewerage in the terms of reference for the forthcoming review of the water sector and will examine how best to address the problems caused by unadopted sewerage. The Government is committed to using legislation to reform the water sector and will continue to do so where necessary. As set out in the written ministerial statement by the Housing Minister, this Government is determined to end the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ estates. We will consult on the best way to achieve this in 2025 and we will include options to reduce the prevalence of private management of these estates - which are the root cause of the problems faced by homeowners.

Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to Question 20371 on Sewers: Private Sector, tabled on 16 December 2024.

A response to Question 20371 is being prepared and will be provided as soon as possible. I apologise for the delay in responding to the Honourable Member.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the eligibility criteria for the Frequently Flooded Allowance on flood risks in low population rural areas.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to their previous question 20325 on 2 January.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether changes have been made to the criteria of the Farming Recovery Fund since Storms Ashley and Bert.

October 2023 to March 2024 has been recorded as the wettest six-month period ever recorded. The Farming Recovery Fund used data from Environment Agency and remote imagery on high river levels during Storm Babet (October 2023) and Storm Henk (January 2024)...

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of existing (a) culvert and (b) land drainage responsibility legislation.

Defra keeps all legislation under review. Between 2022 and 2024, Defra undertook a review of the statutory powers and responsibilities to map, monitor, inspect and maintain all flood and coastal erosion risk assets, including culverts. This review also co...

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to announce new projects funded by the Frequently Flooded Allowance in the next year.

We are investing £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. The list of projects to receive government funding in 2025/26 will be consented in the usual way through Regional Flood...

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to protect properties in North Shropshire constituency against surface water flooding.

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. The Environment Agency has strategic overview...

Food and Rural Affairs, what methodologies the Rural Payments Agency uses to determine the set proportion of total eligible farm area provided funding.

The Rural Payments Agency uses both the Environment Agency and Met Office data to establish which farm businesses may be eligible for Farming Recovery Payment. The data on river flooding and exceptional rainfall allows the agency to identify affected land...

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the methodology used to decide which areas are eligible for funding under the Frequently Flooded Allowance.

This Government is investing £2.4bn in 2024/25-2025/26 to improve flood resilience. The projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be consented over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees with local re...

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the methodologies used by the Rural Payments Agency for deciding which areas of farmland are eligible for the Farm

The Rural Payments Agency uses both the Environment Agency and Met Office data to establish which farm businesses may be eligible for Farming Recovery Payment. The data on river flooding and exceptional rainfall allows the agency to identify affected land...