Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 5
Second Report - Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition
Published 28 Oct 2021
Paragraph 40
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We are pleased that Defra’s engagement has improved over the last year, but delays in communication due to delays in policy development have already impacted farmers’ ability to plan for the significant changes ahead. Defra itself cannot directly reach every farmer, but it is essential that every farmer and land manager is made aware of what is coming. The scale and complexity of Defra’s policy means that a clear strategy to communicate its plans to the full range of farmers and land managers, with measurable objectives, is needed. If this is not in place, the agricultural transition risks falling at the first hurdle. Defra should develop a clear engagement strategy with plans in place to measure its success in reaching the full range of farmers and land managers, and consider how advisory networks and intermediary organisations may be more effectively used to communicate key information about the agricultural transition. In order to build confidence and foster buy-in, this engagement strategy should also involve a concerted effort to demonstrate how the views of farmers and land managers have fed into the design of ELM.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Second Report - Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition (HC 78), paragraph 40, 28 October 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 January 2022 (deadline 28 December 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it "strongly agrees" that the agricultural transition must work for farmers and contribute to environmental objectives, while declining some specific recommendations.
- On the phasing out of Direct Payments, the Government says it is "not planning to change the profile of Direct Payments reductions", stating that suggesting otherwise would create "unnecessary and unhelpful uncertainty".
- On the budget, it will honour the £2.4 billion annual commitment to 2024/25 but is "unable to commit" beyond that, as future budgets will be decided by future governments.
- On engagement, it agrees it "can and should do more" to explain how engagement has informed scheme design, and plans to increase engagement activity in 2022.
- On whole-farm standards, it does not mandate entering whole farms into the Sustainable Farming Incentive, citing challenges, but is "continuing to investigate" land management plans through the pilot.