Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 11
Second Report - Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition
Published 28 Oct 2021
Paragraph 69
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)
It is important that the Sustainable Farming Incentive does not repeat the failures of previous agri-environment schemes like Entry Level Stewardship, which achieved high uptake but failed to drive significant environmental delivery. It must also not create perverse incentives or fail to reward existing good practice. The SFI should form part of a process, supporting farmers to deliver more and more for the environment over time. Defra should set out in its response to this Report how the Sustainable Farming Incentive will reward existing good practice at the same time as encouraging farmers to undertake new environmental activities. It should also explain how the SFI will support improved environmental delivery over time.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Second Report - Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition (HC 78), paragraph 69, 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.