Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Paragraph: 93
ELM must be accessible and avoid the bureaucratic barriers to entry and punitive regulations which...
Conclusion
ELM must be accessible and avoid the bureaucratic barriers to entry and punitive regulations which plagued previous agri-environment schemes. We welcome Defra’s commitment to improving their approach to regulation and enforcement, but emphasise the importance of delivering on these promises to build confidence and promote the uptake of ELM, lifting the burden on those who follow the rules while ensuring that public money is being well spent on delivering meaningful outcomes. Defra should provide more detail in its response to this Report on how it intends to use of a range of mechanisms, including a risk-based approach and where appropriate 44 Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition assurance schemes and self-assessment, to ensure that farmers in ELM agreements are delivering for the environment while not being subject to unnecessarily burdensome and bureaucratic regulation.
Paragraph Reference:
93
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We will design the environmental land management schemes in partnership with farmers so that they are simple, both to apply for and to deliver. For example, the Sustainable Farming Incentive application process and any associated paperwork will be as straightforward as possible so that farmers can complete it themselves without the need to pay for someone else to manage the application process or ongoing agreements. The approach to agreement monitoring will be simpler, fairer and more proportionate than EU-based schemes. We are removing complexity and unnecessary bureaucracy from the entire process. Through the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, we are exploring a new model for monitoring the delivery of agreements. It focuses on outcomes and improvement instead of penalties, while still protecting public money through methods such as virtual checks, site visits or remote monitoring. These methods work in conjunction with the Annual Declaration, a participant-led annual self-assessment declaration, which is used as part of the compliance assessment and can trigger further action if risk of non-compliance is identified. We are using the pilot to explore if membership of existing environmental assurance schemes might play a role in providing earned recognition for farmers with Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements. Once trialled, we will use our learnings in developing the other environmental land management schemes. All farmers are subject to regulatory standards, and we are working to enable high levels of compliance against these standards that will ensure environmental land management agreements fully deliver outcomes for the environment.