Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Deferred
Paragraph: 63
Establish an effective monitoring and evaluation programme for all ELM schemes.
Conclusion
It is disappointing that the Government has not acted on our previous calls for a set of measurable targets and an evaluation programme for the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. The impact of ELM scheme must be monitored more effectively than previous environmental management schemes to gain the benefits of the iterative approach. This would ensure that ELMs deliver positive outcomes for the environment, which paying for actions does not guarantee, and demonstrate that public money is being well spent. If this is done successfully, alongside seeking feedback from farmers, it would enable a better analysis of the impact that the ELM scheme actions are having, both independently and in combination with each other.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response detailed the Environment Agency's work on regulating the safe and sustainable spreading of manures and waste-derived soil conditioners, including reviews and new frameworks by 2026/27, completely unrelated to the recommendation for an ELM evaluation programme.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
63
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
There is a commitment in Part 1 Chapter 1 Section 6 of the Agriculture Act 2020 to report on the impact and effectiveness of Agriculture schemes including ELM. We are currently reviewing how best to meet that commitment. We are developing a comprehensive indicator for soil health in England that will display soils’ ability to contribute to the delivery of selected ecosystem services. Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) published a concept model in June 2023, and we intend to develop a more comprehensive model by 2025. Given the long timescale over which soil properties change, it is unlikely that we will be able to report annually on the impact from our farming schemes on soil health.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗