The Department acknowledged that without the detail of plans, its confidence in the scheme could appear to be “just blind optimism as far as farmers are concerned”.63 Since then, the Department has published further information on how the Sustainable Farming Incentive will work in 2022, including payment rates for the first phase.64 The Department also explained that, while it thought the confidence of the sector will increase as more detail is released, the greatest impact will occur when farmers see schemes working and 58 Qq 61, 118 59 C&AG’s report para 3.10 60 Qq 9–10 61 Qq 11, 16 62 Q 87 63 Q 62 64 Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Sustainable Farming Incentive: how the scheme will work in 2022, 2 December 2021 18 Environmental Land Management Scheme payments happening on time. The Department also told us that it will publish additional information about SFI22 in November, and that information on the standards being offered in SFI for 2023 and 2024 will be published early next year, which is late in the day to give farmers sufficient lead-in time to change their systems.65