Every parliamentary written question tabled by Tim Farron this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 201–220 of 224 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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 those who historically received the largest payments. Our commitment to farmers remains steadfast, with £5 billion committed to the farming budget over two years – the most ever for sustainable food production and nature’s recovery. This keeps momentum to a more sustainable farming sector, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery all continuing.
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 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 them recover from the impacts of the exceptional flooding and wet weather over the duration of this period. The Government inherited flood assets in their worst condition on record following years of underinvestment by the previous government – 92% of the Environment Agency’s 38,000 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 £50 million of investment into internal drainage boards, supporting farmers and rural communities from the impacts of flooding. The new Flood Resilience Taskforce provides oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season.
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 schemes, supported by £5 billion in the agricultural budget over the next two years in the recent budget. This budget is funding farmers in these schemes deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience through winter 2024/25 and beyond.
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 us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. We’re also optimising our farming schemes, so they work efficiently for all farmers, food security and the environment, especially for those that are too often ignored such as small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms.
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 country’s history. We are continuing to phase out delinked payments. Instead, we are targeting additional investments away from direct payments towards the farms least able to adapt, with Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes remaining at the centre of our offer for farmers. Phasing out delinked payments will allow us to focus investment on ELM schemes, which will be funded with £1.8 billion in 2025/26. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience. It will enable farmers to make their businesses more sustainable and resilient, including those who have been often ignored such as small, grassland, upland and tenant farmers. We are providing advice via the Resilience Scheme, which can help adaptation by those farms most affected by reducing delinked payments. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve our ELM schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.
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. For 2025 delinked payments, we plan to apply a 76% reduction to the first £30,000 of a payment, while making no payments for any portion of a payment above £30,000. On farm support more broadly, the Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years, including £2.4 billion in 2025/26.Phasing out delinked payments will allow us to focus more of this funding on Environmental Land Management schemes. The farming budget for future years will be agreed as part of phase 2 of the Spending Review.
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. For 2025 delinked payments, we plan to apply a 76% reduction to the first £30,000 of a payment, while making no payments for any portion of a payment above £30,000. On farm support more broadly, the Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years, including £2.4 billion in 2025/26.Phasing out delinked payments will allow us to focus more of this funding on Environmental Land Management schemes. The farming budget for future years will be agreed as part of phase 2 of the Spending Review.
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.
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to establish a Tenant Farming Commissioner.
This Government is committed to a resilient and thriving farming sector in which all farmers, including tenant farmers, are supported to deliver our food security and environmental goals. The Government is considering the role of a Commissioner for the Tenant Farming sector and will provide an update in due course.
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take legislative steps to end the practice of operator self-monitoring, in the context of recent trends in the level of river pollution discharges.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill will introduce a requirement for water companies to publish information on discharges from emergency overflows in near real-time (within an hour of a discharge occurring). This requirement will be in addition to the duty coming into force for companies to publish discharges from storm overflows in near real-time. The increased availability of near real-time data will be independently scrutinised by the regulators and will fulfil the Government’s commitment to ensure independent monitoring of every outlet. The Environment Agency (EA) are already recruiting up to 500 additional staff for inspections, enforcement and stronger regulation, increasing compliance checks, and quadrupling the number of water company inspections by March next year. The increase in inspections will allow the EA to conduct more in-depth and independent audits to get to the root-cause of incidents, reducing the reliance on operator self-monitoring. On 23 October the Government launched an Independent Commission into the water sector regulatory system. The Commission includes specific objectives around ensuring water industry regulators are effective, have a clear purpose, and are empowered to hold water companies to account.
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will issue a revised strategic policy statement to OFWAT on its regulation of water companies.
The Government and regulators work together to drive improvements that benefit both customers and the environment and hold water companies to account where necessary through strong enforcement action. We have set clear expectations of the sector, including regulators, and will not hesitate to take further action if we do not see the necessary action. The measures that will be implemented through the Water (Special Measures) Bill are a down payment on the comprehensive reforms needed to restore our rivers, lakes, and seas to good health, meet the challenges of the future, and drive economic growthThe Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh government, has launched an Independent Commission into the water sector and its regulation. The latest step in the Government’s programme to transform how our water system works. The Commission will adopt a broad scope. That will include considering the role of the regulators, ensuring they are effective for holding companies accountable, as well as establishing clear outcomes and a long-term vision for the future. The Commission will report to the Secretary of State for Environment, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs with recommendations, in Q2 2025. The UK Government and Welsh Government will then respond and consult on proposals, including potential further legislation. The Government does not intend to issue a revised statement until after the outcomes of the independent commission.
Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department have worked on teams covering (a) water companies and (b) sewage in each of the last five financial years.
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Food and Rural Affairs, what the inspection regime is for premises licensed by the Animal and Plant Health Agency to operate as quarantine facilities.
Quarantine kennels are subject to annual authorisation by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) for the first two years of establishment approval and authorisation every two years thereafter. Before granting a quarantine kennel licence, APHA inspects the premises. The premises must meet standard requirements for the design, construction, operation and management of a quarantine facility to ensure that full rabies security is maintained and must also meet specific welfare requirements. Every premises is overseen by a veterinary superintendent (VS) who oversees the health and welfare of the animals in the establishment’s care. The VS must visit the premises every week and submit a monthly report on the facility to APHA. APHA field vets also inspect the quarantine kennel every three months to ensure the health and welfare of the occupants is satisfactory.
Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's statutory guidance entitled Dog kennel boarding licensing: statutory guidance for local authorities, updated on 1 June 2024, how many licensed kennels and catteries inspected by local authorities did not meet minimum requirements in the latest period for which data is available.
Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 there are no statutory requirements for local authorities to provide Defra with information on the number of licensed businesses who do not meet minimum requirements. Local authorities are required to provide an annual return detailing the number of licences in force on 1st April each year, and the average fees associated with the grant or renewal of each licence in the preceding year. Some local authorities have provided additional information about suspended, refused or revoked licences. Data from the annual return is published by Defra and can be found here: Local Authority Licensing of Activities involving Animals returns - data.gov.uk.
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of places available for dogs and cats at Animal and Plant Health Agency licensed quarantine kennel and cattery facilities.
The number of quarantine kennels and cattery facilities is kept under constant review to ensure there is sufficient quarantine provision to preserve our high animal health and biosecurity standards.
Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) dog and (b) cat places were licensed by the Animal and Plant Health Agency for quarantine in each year since 2014.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency only holds information on the number of quarantine kennels (QKs) that have been approved from 2017. The table below details the number of approved premises for each year: 20172018201920202021202220232024Number of QKs approved - dogs99777776Number of QKs approved - cats99766665 The numbers provided only cover quarantine kennels that are for public use as pet quarantine kennels. We have not included rabies quarantine facilities which includes zoo quarantine premises, research quarantine premises and 48 hours temporary holdings at ports/airports.
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the animal welfare provision and conditions within the Animal and Plant Health Agency licensed quarantine kennel and cattery facilities.
The Government is committed to preserving high animal welfare and biosecurity standards. Authorised quarantine premises are approved and regularly inspected by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to ensure they meet the standards specified in the conditions of their authorisation, which includes welfare standards. We keep the adequacy of the animal welfare provision and conditions within authorised quarantine premises under regular review.