Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 16
16
The Tenant Farmers Association told us that its members participating in the pilot were finding...
Conclusion
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,
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
7: PAC conclusion: We are concerned that ELM will be too complex and bureaucratic and will not cater for the full range of farm types and circumstances. 7: PAC 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. 7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 7.2 The government wrote to the Committee on the 27 January as requested. 7.3 The government is already designing the new schemes to be more straightforward, fair and attractive to farmers. 7.4 The government is actively learning from the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot and has already updated the standards and scheme rules for early rollout of the scheme based on that learning. In particular, the government has updated: • the rules of scheme agreement length and flexibility to make the scheme more accessible to tenant farmers, and • the standards to make them more straightforward and more practicable on farm Before rollout of the scheme, the government is: • simplifying scheme rules, guidance, and paperwork • implementing a new, more straightforward, and more rapid process to apply for the scheme, and • updating the terms and conditions of the scheme