Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Conclusion 3
First Report - Soil health
Published 5 Dec 2023
Paragraph 24
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Soil Health All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The soil health baseline will not be established until 2028 and determining trends from that data will potentially take longer still. Given the importance of soil health, we feel it is essential to take steps now to use existing soil data and identify priority areas of concern. Furthermore, unlike the Minister, we believe that comparing soil data is helpful at an individual farm level and that this data is vital for assessing the impact of ELMs. The Government’s Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme should therefore be more ambitious and aim to collect more detailed, granular data to support land managers and inform future policy development. ELMs—as well as benefitting from more thorough data—could also be an effective mechanism for funding, standardising and collecting such field-level data. We are not convinced that guidance alone will be enough to sufficiently standardise soil tests and assessments around agreed metrics. However, this must be done in such a way to alleviate privacy concerns and avoid additional administrative burdens.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, First Report - Soil health (HC 245), paragraph 24, 5 December 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 21 March 2024 (deadline 5 February 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it welcomes the Committee's recommendations and is "carefully considering them alongside our existing initiatives", while setting out its own timings and positions on individual recommendations.
- On soil data, national soil monitoring is under way within the tNCEA programme, with the soil health baseline due "by 2028, subject to further capital funding". Defra will publish a progress report on the soil health indicator by June 2024.
- On statutory soil targets, the government sees target-setting as "an iterative process" and will "keep our targets framework under review". The next Environmental Improvement Plan review is due in 2028.
- On annual reporting for ELM schemes, it is reviewing how best to meet its Agriculture Act 2020 reporting commitment and says it is "unlikely" that it can report annually on soil health impacts.
- On soil remediation and reuse, it intends to pilot a Soil Reuse and Depot scheme by December 2026 and expects revised construction guidance by summer 2024. It will assess voluntary approaches "before considering any regulatory models, or the need for a specific taskforce".