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1659720

registered interest
date	11/09/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) incentivise and (b) support domestic food production.
tabling member constituency	Stockton South
tabling member printed	Matt Vickers
uin	198864
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/09/2023 answer text <p>The Government is backing British farmers with £2.4 billion of investment every year. In May 2023 the Prime Minister and the Defra Secretary of State met with representatives from across the whole UK supply chain, from farm to fork, for a Summit on how Government and industry can work together to support a thriving UK food industry. Support for farmers includes our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. These schemes will ensure our long-term food security by investing in the foundations of food production: healthy soil, water and biodiverse ecosystems. ELM schemes have been developed so that there is an offer for all farm types, including for tenant farmers.</p><p> </p><p>ELM includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). This pays farmers for actions that support food production and can help improve farm productivity and resilience, while protecting and improving the environment. It has been expanded and made more flexible in response to farmers’ feedback, with 23 actions on offer under the new and improved 2023 scheme, including on soil health, moorland, hedgerows, integrated pest management, farmland wildlife, buffer strips, and low input grassland. In recognition of the challenges faced with inflation and rising input costs, the Government has confirmed farmers will receive a payment in the first month of their Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 (SFI) agreement to help with cashflow. The scheme will open for applications from 18 September. Before then farmers can contact the RPA to join the thousands of farm businesses that have already expressed their interest in applying.</p><p> </p><p>ELM also includes Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Landscape Recovery (LR). CS will pay farmers and land managers to look after and improve the environment in specific habitats, features and local areas. LR is for landowners and managers who want to take a more large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land. LR projects will demonstrate how food production and environmental delivery can go hand in hand.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has also confirmed that farmers producing sustainable British food under ELM schemes will be able to use them to help meet public procurement standards, benefiting our British farmers and allowing the public sector to benefit from more excellent British food. We are providing tailored business advice to all farmers. We have cut red tape, brought in fair enforcement regimes, and helped the sector access the seasonal labour it needs. We are looking closely at the Shropshire review into labour shortages in the food chain that we commissioned to see how we can go further.</p><p> </p><p>We are also reviewing supply chain fairness in the sector: the Government announced in July that it plans to introduce regulations this autumn to make sure supply contracts in the dairy sector are fair and transparent, meaning farmers can challenge prices or raise concerns with contracts more easily. This represents a key milestone in our commitment to promote fairness and transparency across food supply chains to support farmers and build a stronger future for the industry, and will be followed by reviews into the egg and horticulture sector supply chains this Autumn to ensure farmers are paid a fair price. We will also identify opportunities to remove unnecessary burdens for Small Abattoirs. We are also trying to unlock opportunities for genetic technologies.</p><p> </p><p>Further information on how we are supporting farmers can be found on our webpage: <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeframedia.blog.gov.uk%2F2023%2F02%2F21%2Four-record-on-farming-30-actions-we-have-taken-to-support-our-farmers-and-growers%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cpqteam%40defra.gov.uk%7C7d6c1c87754f4ebd85ee08dbb4618ab0%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638302103245853639%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=I8UjZenIiVB8e0RdknrzooGFU2glWz5kNYGQbYZJr5s%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Our record on farming: 30 actions we have taken to support our farmers and growers</a>.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Mark Spencer question first answered 18/09/2023 11:07:15 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	4844 label Biography information for Matt Vickers

1654342

registered interest
date	19/07/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) agriculture and (b) horticulture businesses have access to adequate water for food production.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	195039
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to strong domestic food production and the Plan for Water sets out the actions we are taking to secure water supplies, including for the agriculture and horticulture sectors. The Government and the Environment Agency are working with the sectors to help them improve the resilience of water supplies for the future.</p><p> </p><p>The package of support includes improvements to water resources planning and investment in infrastructure, for example by aiming to increase the amount of water stored by the agriculture and horticulture sectors to support food production and protect the water environment. This includes £20 million of grants to help farmers with the costs of building on-farm water reservoirs and irrigation equipment, through two rounds of the Water Management Grant under the Farming Investment Fund.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 13/09/2023 16:37:39 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1654347

registered interest
date	19/07/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure more home-grown sustainable food is (a) bought, (b) made and (c) sold through public procurement contracts.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	195044
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/09/2023 answer text <p>The UK produces world leading quality food and drink, demonstrating excellence in animal welfare and sustainable production standards. Defra’s consultation on food and catering policy sought views on a number of proposals to update the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services. This included ways of gaining greater clarity on how widely sustainable UK-grown food and ingredients are used in public sector canteens and kitchens. Changes to the standards must be proportionate and strike a balance between providing information on the impact of government policy and managing burdens on business. We will publish the consultation findings, alongside updated standards and guidance later this year.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Mark Spencer question first answered 04/09/2023 15:46:30 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1640668

registered interest
date	25/05/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) maximise food production in the UK, and (2) enhance food security.
tabling member printed	Baroness Kennedy of Cradley
uin	HL8148
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/05/2023 answer text <p>The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption.</p><p> </p><p>Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 61% of all the food we need, and 74% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year, and these figures have changed little over the last 20 years.</p><p> </p><p>The Government committed to broadly maintain current levels of domestic food production in its Food Strategy, which also set out what we will do to create a more prosperous agri-food sector.</p><p> </p><p>We have taken several steps to support the long-term resilience and profitability of the agricultural sector. For example, we are making Direct Payments in England in two instalments each year for the remainder of the agricultural transition period, to help farmers with their cashflow; we are committed to spend around £600 million on grants and other support for farmers to invest in productivity, animal health and welfare, innovation over three years; and we have provided 10,000 farmers with help and advice through the Future Farming Resilience Fund, which provides farmers with free advice to help farmers work out what to do for their business.</p><p> </p><p>Recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK Food Security Report was published in December 2021. It recognises the contribution made by British farmers to our resilience and considers the UK's food supply sources overall, noting that domestic production and diversity of supply are both important to our food security. The next Food Security Report will be published in 2024.</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 31/05/2023 13:06:40 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
tabling member	4303 label Biography information for Baroness Kennedy of Cradley

1603632

registered interest
date	13/03/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether sufficient data is available to monitor domestic food production across all agricultural sectors.
tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
uin	163723
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/03/2023 answer text <p>The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.</p><p> </p><p>Defra has well established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains. We speak regularly with food industry figures, who remain confident in the food supply chain.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. Defra has requested weekly data from supermarkets on supplies of the foods to ensure we have the latest available data. Defra’s view is that the most effective response to food supply disruption is industry-led, with appropriate support and enablement from HM Government.</p><p>Recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK Food Security Report was published in December 2021. This report will serve as an evidence base for future policy work.</p><p> </p><p>In recent weeks some supermarkets applied item limits to a small number of fruit and vegetables due to poor weather affecting the harvest in Spain and North Africa, where a high proportion of produce consumed in UK at this time of year is grown.</p><p> </p><p>Defra is closely monitoring markets and supply chains to explore the factors that have contributed to ongoing supply chain pressures and is considering how government and industry can work together to mitigate them, in the short and longer term.</p><p> </p><p>Defra has requested weekly data from supermarkets on supplies of the foods affected to ensure we have the latest available data.</p><p> </p><p>Supermarkets are confident that supply will be back to normal by the end of this month.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Mark Spencer grouped question UIN 163719 163720 163721 question first answered 16/03/2023 15:07:02 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1601150

registered interest
date	03/03/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support domestic food producers, in the context of increases in the cost of agricultural production.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, West Derby
tabling member printed	Ian Byrne
uin	157719
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/03/2023 answer text <p>We recognise that farmers and domestic food producers are facing global pressures due to the illegal war in Ukraine and a historic outbreak of avian influenza across Europe. The Government has announced a series of measures to support farmers with these pressures. <br> <br>A new energy scheme (the Energy Bill Discount Scheme) for businesses, charities, and the public sector was confirmed on the 9th January this year, ahead of the current scheme (Energy Bill Relief Scheme) ending in March. The new scheme will mean all eligible UK businesses and other non-domestic energy users will receive a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024. <br> <br>On Friday 16 December last year, HM Government announced that an allocation of 45,000 visas will be made available in 2023 to businesses in the horticulture sector, to recruit foreign workers for up to six months to work in both the edible and ornamental sectors. This is an uplift of 15,000 visas compared to the allocation at the start of 2022. <br> <br>Direct Payments to Farmers in England will be made in two instalments each year for the remainder of the agricultural transition period, to support farmers with their cashflow. We have also provided increased payment rates under Countryside Stewardship (CS) from an average increase of 10% for revenue payment rates – covering ongoing activity such as habitat management – and an average increase of 48% for capital payment rates – covering one-off projects such as hedgerow creation. <br> <br>To help farmers reduce their reliance on fertilisers, which has recently increased in price, the government has removed tariffs on US maize imports. We continue to collaborate with industry, across government and devolved administrations on fertiliser price transparency and monitoring of the security and stability of fertiliser and other supply chains.</p><p>This government has improved the Avian Flu compensation scheme for farmers to help farmers through the worst global outbreak in many years and eased marketing rules to give certainty over business planning.</p><p>Defra works with industry bodies across the horticulture sectors, including with the Edible Horticulture Roundtable Group (EHRG), as well as with other key stakeholders, such as the British Growers Association (BGA) and the National Farmers Union (NFU) to monitor and assess the current market situation for fruit and vegetable growers. We also work with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations at the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group (UK AMMG).</p><p>Looking forward, this government has committed to spend approximately £600 million on grants and other support for farmers to invest in productivity, animal health and welfare, innovation over three years.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Mark Spencer question first answered 13/03/2023 17:12:55 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	4831 label Biography information for Ian Byrne

1601153

registered interest
date	03/03/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of import controls in place to support the UK's domestic food production; and what the status of those controls are.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, West Derby
tabling member printed	Ian Byrne
uin	157720
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2023 answer text <p>In April 2022, the UK Government decided not to introduce the final set of planned controls on EU imports. We have instead worked with industry to develop a new model for imports into Great Britain. The new Border Target Operating Model (TOM), to be published later this year, will set out how GB’s new Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regime for imports will operate in full. The TOM will balance the need to protect our biosecurity with the need to support businesses with import processes that are as simple as possible. Ahead of TOM publication, we have already implemented some controls on the highest risk goods such as plants for planting and live animals. In addition, all regulated SPS goods must be electronically pre-notified before arrival into GB. We still operate the same import health controls on non-EU goods entering GB that applied whilst we were in the EU, except for certain commodities which present a negligible risk. Defra continually monitor threat levels from biosecurity risks, and respond accordingly. Full details of current import controls and the commodities to which they apply are published on Gov.uk.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Mark Spencer question first answered 08/03/2023 16:48:12 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	4831 label Biography information for Ian Byrne

1565740

registered interest
date	10/01/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that (1) food production is placed at the heart of wider government policies, and (2) domestic food production does not diminish.
tabling member printed	Baroness Redfern
uin	HL4625
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/02/2023 answer text <p>Food supply is one of the UK's 13 Critical National Infrastructure sectors. Defra and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are joint Lead Government Departments (LGDs), with Defra leading on supply and the FSA on food safety. As such we work closely with the Cabinet Office and other LGDs ensuring food supply is fully incorporated as part of emergency preparedness, including consideration of dependencies on other sectors.</p><p> </p><p>The Government Food Strategy was published in June 2022 setting out a plan to transform our food system to ensure it is fit for the future. The Food Strategy is a cross-departmental strategy. Therefore, Defra actively collaborated with and engaged with other Government departments in its development.</p><p> </p><p>Responding to recent events, the Food Strategy puts food security at the heart of the government’s vision for the food sector. It included a commitment to broadly maintain the current level of food that we produce domestically and boost production in sectors where there are the biggest opportunities.</p><p> </p><p>Setting this commitment demonstrates that we recognise the critical importance of domestic food production and the role that it plays in our food security. Domestic production figures have been very stable for most of this century. We produce 61% of all the food we need, and 74% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year, and these figures have changed little over the last 20 years.</p><p> </p><p>Food production is the primary purpose of farming and always will be. Our agricultural reforms in England aim to support a highly productive food producing sector, meeting our commitment to broadly maintain food production, alongside environmental improvements that benefit us all such as improving water quality and species abundance.</p><p> </p><p>Balancing and integrating food production with our environmental land management will support an efficient and sustainable land use without offshoring harms associated with lower production standards. We have a legal duty to assess the impact of all environmental land management schemes, such as Sustainable Farming Incentive and Landscape Recovery, on food production.</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 01/02/2023 15:50:34 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
tabling member	4551 label Biography information for Baroness Redfern

1472764

registered interest
date	23/06/2022
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the rise in the cost of living on food producers.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	900687
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/06/2022 answer text <p>Agricultural commodities are linked to global gas prices, and we recognise that farmers and food producers are facing increased input costs – namely fertiliser, energy, fuel and feed. We have taken steps to support farmers with fertiliser availability, brought forward BPS payments, implemented maize tariff reductions and introduced flexibility in the labelling of certain oils in products.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 23/06/2022 15:03:38 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1462657

registered interest
date	12/05/2022
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Production
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has taken steps to (a) provide financial assistance to farmers to enable higher quantities of food to be produced in the UK and (b) support increased food production in the UK by other means.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	1322
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/06/2022 answer text <p>Food is the primary purpose of farming, and always will be. Farming in England is now going through the biggest change in a generation. As Government, our approach to working with the farming sector is changing too. The Common Agricultural Policy paid farmers based on land ownership. Our schemes are incentivising farmers to take care of natural assets, like soil, which in turn is good for food production and the bottom line. They are about supporting the choices that individual farmers take for their farms, and we are ensuring that all farmers, including tenants, can access funding.</p><p> </p><p>In England, we are providing farmers with two ways of receiving payments: one-off grants and ongoing schemes. Farmers can pick and choose from the offer to find a package that works for them. Everything we are offering contributes to our three goals: supporting viable businesses, maintaining food production at its current level, and achieving animal health, welfare and climate outcomes.</p><p> </p><p>In terms of grants, we have made available and increased the budgets of our farming innovation and farming investment programmes. For ongoing payments, we have over 900 farmers in the pilot for our sustainable farming incentive and will shortly start the roll out of that scheme paying farmers to improve their soil health.</p><p> </p><p>On 13 June, we published the Government Food Strategy, setting out that we will maintain domestic production and increase it in sectors where there is the most opportunity – including horticulture. The strategy sets out further details of how farmers will be able to use grant funding to boost profitability and maintain food production, and also sets out measures to boost local food consumption.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 16/06/2022 13:07:47 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel