Recommendations & Conclusions
9 items
2
Recommendation
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
The Department has not established the metrics that it will need to determine whether ELM is contributing towards the government’s environmental goals. The Department has set out its high-level vision for ELM, which is to secure a range of positive environmental benefits and to help tackle some of the environmental …
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The Department has not established the metrics that it will need to determine whether ELM is contributing towards the government’s environmental goals. The Department has set out its high-level vision for ELM, which is to secure a range of positive environmental benefits and to help tackle some of the environmental challenges associated with agriculture. But it does not yet have detailed objectives for achieving this vision. The Department has committed to publishing these before Christmas, alongside details of the initial roll-out of SFI. However, the objectives will only apply to the current Parliament and will not include ELM’s contributions to long-term objectives, such as to net-zero. The Department is unable to explain how it intends to assess progress against environmental baselines, or even whether these baseline measures exist. In the early stages of ELM, the Department will award payments based on the amount of land on which specified environmental actions are being carried out, not on measuring the environmental benefits delivered through these actions. The Department expects that, for later elements, such as peatland restoration, it will be in a position to make greater use of baseline data. Recommendation: The Department should develop clear metrics, and establish robust baseline measures, to allow it to assess the operational effectiveness of ELM and ensure these are published before the start of roll-out in 2022. It should report against these metrics annually to enable Parliament and the public to determine what progress it is making towards meeting the objectives set out in the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan.
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation and committed to developing clear metrics and reporting annually on the delivery of targets within its statutory Environmental Improvement Plan by January 2023, which will include ELM scheme performance.
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HM Treasury
7
Recommendation
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
We are concerned that ELM will be too complex and bureaucratic, and will not cater for the full range of farm types and circumstances. The Department has used a process of ‘co-design’ to develop the scheme, working closely with both stakeholders and a panel of farmers. Stakeholders describe feeling very …
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We are concerned that ELM will be too complex and bureaucratic, and will not cater for the full range of farm types and circumstances. The Department has used a process of ‘co-design’ to develop the scheme, working closely with both stakeholders and a panel of farmers. Stakeholders describe feeling very engaged, but are concerned that the Department is confusing activity for progress in the scheme’s design. Even though the scheme is due to launch soon, organisations are struggling to support their members in understanding how they will be able to access the scheme and what provisions are being made for specific groups, such as tenant farmers. But farmers participating in the pilot report a lack of flexibility in the design of ELM, that they find the guidance very confusing, and that it is still not clear what they need to do to receive payment. There is a risk that small farmers will find any excessive bureaucracy especially challenging, so it is a particular concern that they are under-represented in the pilot. Only 30% of farms participating in the pilot are under 50 hectares compared to 61% of English farm businesses as a whole. Recommendation: The Department should urgently write to the Committee by the end of January 2022 to explain how it is using the current pilot of SFI to get feedback on the complexity of ELM, especially for smaller farm businesses and tenant farmers, and what changes it will make to alleviate any perceived complexity. Environmental Land Management Scheme 9 1 Progress in designing and introducing the scheme
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation, stating it was implemented by writing to the Committee by the deadline. It detailed actions taken, such as updating rules for tenant farmers and simplifying scheme standards, and committed to further simplification of rules, guidance, and application processes before rollout.
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HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has a history of failure when developing systems to support subsidy payments for farmers, and this history means that it is starting with a low level of trust from the sector.30 In 2016, the previous Committee examined the Department’s delivery of new …
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The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has a history of failure when developing systems to support subsidy payments for farmers, and this history means that it is starting with a low level of trust from the sector.30 In 2016, the previous Committee examined the Department’s delivery of new systems and processes to support the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy, which was itself intended to address past failures. It found that this has been unsuccessful in many respects, and that repeated failures in the delivery of the CAP meant that payments to farmers had been delayed at a time when their cashflow was already stretched.31 The previous Committee examined the programme again in 2017 and found that the extent of the Rural Payments Agency’s (the RPA’s) failure to pay farmers in England on time and in full was clear. The RPA paid only 38% of farmers on 1 December 2015, the first day when payments could be made, compared to 90% in previous years. By the end of March 2016, 16% of farmers still had not received any payment. It concluded that in addition to the RPA being unable to pay farmers the money they were due on time, the Department had not assessed the impact of this on farmers and the rural community.32 The Department recognised that the trust of farmers would be critical to the success of its new schemes.33 Designing the scheme with farmers
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the related recommendation (Rec 5), committing to review its communications strategy and report to the Committee by March 2022 on improvements and how it will incentivise young farmers, thereby addressing the committee's concern about low trust.
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HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
An important test of whether the Department’s approach will be successful is the pilot for SFI, for which applications opened in July 2021. The SFI pilot will test how farmers respond to the scheme’s design and systems, the approach to farm inspections and compliance, and ease of use of current …
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An important test of whether the Department’s approach will be successful is the pilot for SFI, for which applications opened in July 2021. The SFI pilot will test how farmers respond to the scheme’s design and systems, the approach to farm inspections and compliance, and ease of use of current systems and technical guidance.40 The Department told us that 938 farmers had applied to join the pilot, in line with its target of around 1,000 participants out of 218,000 farm holdings,41 and that this included good representation of different types, sizes and location of farms.42 It also told us that these participation rates were a sign that the SFI offer was attractive to small farmers and tenant farmers.43 The Department wrote to us after our evidence session to explain that, of those taking part in the pilot, 22% were tenant farmers. This is in line with the proportion of the farming sector they represent at 26%.44 However the data also showed that 30% (283) of pilot participants were on farms under 50 hectares.45 In comparison, published data show that more than double this (61%) of English farm businesses as a whole are below 50 hectares.46 The Department committed to providing us with a breakdown of the pilot participants, including the different geographies represented, but its letter did not include this analysis so we do not yet know how representative the pilot is in terms of farm location.47
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Government response AI summary
The government confirms the successful launch of the SFI pilot with target participation and asserts a good range of geography, farm types, ownership, and sizes, implicitly addressing the committee's concerns about pilot representativeness through existing actions.
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HM Treasury
16
Recommendation
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
The Tenant Farmers Association told us that its members participating in the pilot were finding the scheme guidance confusing, with an onus on farmers to decide what they think is best to enable the delivery of public goods.48 The National Farmers’ Union told us that it had received similar feedback …
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The Tenant Farmers Association told us that its members participating in the pilot were finding the scheme guidance confusing, with an onus on farmers to decide what they think is best to enable the delivery of public goods.48 The National Farmers’ Union told us that it had received similar feedback from farmers that the scheme felt complicated and very prescriptive, and that it expected farmers to find delivering the scheme very challenging. It also highlighted that some pilot participants were taking part to learn what the scheme looked like, rather than because of the incentives to participate. The National Farmers’ Union also told us that the current incentives will not be seen favourably by farm businesses that use intensive practices, and that it will not make sense for these farms to go into the scheme.49 We noted that some of the Department’s past schemes have been complicated and asked what it was doing to ensure that ELM is user-friendly. The Department told us that it was taking on board feedback about what works and does not work to try to ensure that the scheme is “as accessible as possible”.50 The Department and 38 Qq 62–63, 110 39 EMS0010 – Environmental Land Management Scheme, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), 1 November 2021 40 C&AG’s Report, para 2.3 41 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, The Future Farming and Environment Evidence Compendium, September 2019 42 Q 123 43 Q 60 44 Update on the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot - Future Farming (blog.gov.uk) 45 Letter from Tamara Finkelstein CB, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, to Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair, Public Accounts Committee, 5 November 2021 46 Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2020, July 2021 47 Q 123 48 Q 12 49 Q 30 50 Q 53 16 Environmental Land Management Scheme RPA told us that they were working on the system for SFI22 including a new front end to make it more accessible and user friendly,
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation, reporting that they wrote to the Committee by the deadline and are actively using pilot feedback to simplify scheme rules, guidance, and the application process for SFI.
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HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
The mental health of farmers is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the sector. In October 2021, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution reported that almost half of the farming community (47%) were experiencing some form of anxiety, and 36% were probably or possibly depressed.57 In light of the Department’s …
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The mental health of farmers is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the sector. In October 2021, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution reported that almost half of the farming community (47%) were experiencing some form of anxiety, and 36% were probably or possibly depressed.57 In light of the Department’s response, we asked about the mental health of farmers and the support the Department planned to provide to the farming sector during the transition to the new scheme. The Department pointed to the Farming Resilience Fund as a key source of support. This is a scheme to offer advice to farmers so they can understand best farming practice, how they can improve their business planning and boost productivity. However, the Department’s description indicated that the fund does not offer direct support to struggling farmers, only direct them towards other schemes. The Department also highlighted its work with farming charities, and the 51 Q 130 52 C&AG’s report paras 6, 1.4, 1.13, Figure 4 53 Q 105 54 Qq 92–94, 116 55 Q 94 56 Qq 59–60 57 Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, The Big Farming Survey 2021, 15 October 2021 Environmental Land Management Scheme 17 RPA emphasised that, instead of its past focus on IT systems, performance and payments, it saw its role as ‘here to help’. It wanted to have a closer relationship with the farmers themselves and made a commitment to do whatever it could to help farmers.58 Supporting farmers through the transition
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation, with a target implementation date of September 2022, highlighting existing support like business planning advice and committing to continually monitoring farmer responses, refining support, and engaging with the farming community.
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HM Treasury
21
Recommendation
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
The Tenant Farmers Association also told us that young farmers had been promised that there would be a scheme specifically to support them to enter the farming industry, but that it had not seen this come forward. It asserted that the information that had been made available so far was …
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The Tenant Farmers Association also told us that young farmers had been promised that there would be a scheme specifically to support them to enter the farming industry, but that it had not seen this come forward. It asserted that the information that had been made available so far was “so lacking in detail that there is no way they can plan their businesses and put together a tenancy application”.60 We therefore asked witnesses about the risk that young farmers would leave the industry because they were unable to wait to see what would happen to the sector in the longer term. The National Farmers’ Union recognised this concern and told us about young farmers who were considering moving to Scotland, where there is greater certainty over the support on offer. The Confederation of Forest Industries also highlighted that a lack of clarity for the long term and how plans fit into wider net-zero targets makes it very difficult for farmers and other land managers to make sure their businesses are sustainable. It told us that this was “really worrying [as] … we desperately need the next generation to come through” and being able to deliver a sustainable farming industry for the future relied on it being profitable as well.61 The Department recognised that “providing more detail as soon as we can with good and wide communication is critical” and that it was seeking to do this.62
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation, agreeing to review its communications strategy and report to the Committee by March 2022 on improvements and how it will incentivise young farmers to enter and remain in the industry.
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HM Treasury
28
Recommendation
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
In addition to the six environmental goals set out in the 25-Year Environment Plan, the Department expects the Future Farming and Countryside Programme to help improve farm productivity. It explained that its work to improve productivity would focus on the resilience of the sector and enabling “the least productive farmers …
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In addition to the six environmental goals set out in the 25-Year Environment Plan, the Department expects the Future Farming and Countryside Programme to help improve farm productivity. It explained that its work to improve productivity would focus on the resilience of the sector and enabling “the least productive farmers to prosper”.77 However the RSPB told us that the detail presented by the Department so far only related to SFI, which was only one of three components of the planned scheme, and that it lacked information on the rest of the scheme or the expected wider impact on farming in the UK. It explained that other factors were also fundamentally important to the viability of farming including market supply chains, equity, fairness, advice and trade agreements.78
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation, agreeing to update and publish its analysis on the impact of farming reforms on food production and farm productivity by March 2022, and stated that food price inflation and self-sufficiency are already reported annually.
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HM Treasury
29
Recommendation
Thirty-First Report - Environmental Lan…
Accepted
We asked whether the design of ELM meant that land would be taken out of production and the UK would therefore either need to import more food or food prices would rise as a result. Professor Rob Fraser told us that the UK was a large net importer of food, …
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We asked whether the design of ELM meant that land would be taken out of production and the UK would therefore either need to import more food or food prices would rise as a result. Professor Rob Fraser told us that the UK was a large net importer of food, importing around £18 billion of food each year and exporting less than £5 billion. He explained that, while the UK could import food and energy, it could not import environmental benefits. He explained that as a result of ELM’s ambition to “maximise the value to society of the landscape in this country”, the UK was likely to become increasingly reliant on food imports.79 The National Farmers’ Union told us it was important for the UK to consider its self-sufficiency in food production to avoid having to import food from countries with 72 Qq 76–78, 82 73 Q 3 74 Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener, October 2021, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy 75 Q 18 76 Q 15 77 Q 60 78 Q 13 79 Qq 21–22 Environmental Land Management Scheme 21 lower environmental standards and the risk of there being no net improvement for the environment.80 Our recent report on net zero highlighted a risk in the short term that policies to reduce emissions transfers them abroad instead,81 and the National Farmers’ Union emphasised that “we cannot simply export our environmental conscience”.82
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation, agreeing to update and publish its analysis on the impact of farming reforms on food production and farm productivity by March 2022, and stated that food price inflation and self-sufficiency are already reported annually.
Read full response →
HM Treasury