Thirty-First Report - Environmental Land Management Scheme

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 639 9 January 2022

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 31 items (13 recs)

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Government Response (AI assessment · 31 of 31 classified)

Accepted 9

Acknowledged 6

Not Addressed 15

Rejected 1

Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty First report from Session 2021-22 · published 1 Mar 2022

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Recommendations & Conclusions

9 results

2 Recommendation Accepted

The Department has not established the metrics that it will need to determine whether ELM...

Recommendation

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 … Read more

Government Response 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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7 Recommendation Accepted

We are concerned that ELM will be too complex and bureaucratic, and will not cater...

Recommendation

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 … Read more

Government Response 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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13 Conclusion Accepted

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has a history of failure when developing...

Conclusion

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 … Read more

Government Response 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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15 Conclusion Accepted

An important test of whether the Department’s approach will be successful is the pilot for...

Conclusion

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 … Read more

Government Response 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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16 Recommendation Accepted

The Tenant Farmers Association told us that its members participating in the pilot were finding...

Recommendation

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 … Read more 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, Show less

Government Response 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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19 Recommendation Accepted

The mental health of farmers is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the sector.

Recommendation

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% … Read more

Government Response 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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21 Recommendation Accepted

The Tenant Farmers Association also told us that young farmers had been promised that there...

Recommendation

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 … Read more

Government Response 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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28 Recommendation Accepted

In addition to the six environmental goals set out in the 25-Year Environment Plan, the...

Recommendation

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 … Read more

Government Response 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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29 Recommendation Accepted

We asked whether the design of ELM meant that land would be taken out of...

Recommendation

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

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