Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 19
19
We note that we are nearing the end of the first year of a seven-year...
Conclusion
We note that we are nearing the end of the first year of a seven-year agricultural transition, and Defra does not yet appear to have made key decisions about which bodies will be responsible for delivering the biggest change to farm support in decades. It is only fair to farmers, and to the agencies themselves, that Defra provide fair notice of what it will be asking of its arms-length bodies in the very near future. Defra should explain in its response to this Report at what time it will clearly communicate a final decision about which bodies will have operational responsibility for the ELM schemes. (Paragraph 99) Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition 45
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
In our 2 December 2021 detailed policy statement on the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme, we confirmed that the RPA will be responsible for administering the Sustainable Farming Incentive. The RPA is also administering the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot. The pilot will provide valuable learning about the experience of farmers and the operational issues involved in delivering the scheme. Decisions on operational arrangements for delivery of the Local Nature and Landscape Recovery Schemes will be made in the coming months. In the meantime, Natural England continue to lead the monitoring and evaluation of ongoing agri-environment schemes under the Rural Development Programme. This covers scheme and multi-objective monitoring and outcome/impact evaluation alongside scheme process evaluations. Natural England evaluation specialists work closely with the Defra environmental land management evidence and evaluation teams to ensure that the current agri-environment scheme monitoring and evaluation informs environmental land management design, development and our approach to evaluating these schemes, alongside co-design with stakeholders.