16 Accepted

Review and evaluate Government communication with farming sector, providing analysis and solutions.

Recommendation
The Government should review how it communicates with the farming sector and properly evaluate the impact recent communications have had on trust in the Department. It should provide its analysis and proposed solutions in its response to this report. (Recommendation, Paragraph 61) 34
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledged concerns about communication and trust, stating that all communications with the farming sector are already evaluated using the Government Communications Service Evaluation Cycle. However, it did not provide specific analysis or proposed solutions within this report as requested.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government Accepted
Our commitment to farming and food security is steadfast. As a result of the Government’s determination to get more farmers to participate, there are now 50,000 farm businesses and half of all farmed land now managed under our schemes – with more money being spent through these schemes than at any point. As such, we will continue to provide further details about our Environmental Land Management schemes. The Government acknowledges the Committee’s concern around the closure of the Capital Grants scheme without notice, in November 2024. This decision was guided by financial and operational factors which dictated our communications approach. In Autumn 2024, we saw unprecedented demand for capital grants compared to previous years which risked unsustainable spending. The decision to close the main capital window helped to ensure further spending went towards the most benefit for food security and nature. At the NFU Conference in February 2025, the Secretary of State Steve Reed confirmed that the Capital Grants offer would reopen with funding in summer 2025. We have delivered on this promise and the Secretary of State announced the opening of Capital Grants offer on 3 July 2025 at Groundswell Regenerative Agricultural Festival. This makes £150 million of funding available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England. We will monitor the uptake of the revised Capital Grants offer to ensure funding in this new round is allocated. We will manage the total farming budget carefully to make it go further to attain our goals for farmers and Government. We have been clear in our guidance and communications to farmers that this round will also close to applications when the available funding is committed. At the point of closure, we will not accept any further applications including those started but not yet submitted. We will aim to give reasonable notice of scheme closure, but this may not be possible. All communications with the farming sector are evaluated using the Government Communications Service Evaluation Cycle, which is a framework for measuring success across all communication activities, promoting continuous learning and innovation while integrating best practices for better impact and future planning.
Timeline
Recommendation age 1.0 yr
Report published 16 May 2025