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Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Sixth Special Report - Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition: Government Response to the Committee’s Second Report of Session 2021–22

Published 20 January 2022

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to Second Report - Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition.

This is the government's response, published 20 January 2022.

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.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

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