Category: Policy & Business

Dan Corry has been appointed to carry out an internal review into the regulation and regulators at Defra.  The review will examine whether the current regulatory landscape is ‘fit for purpose’ and develop recommendations to ensure that regulation across the Department is ‘driving economic growth while protecting the environment’.

The review will explore:

• Whether Defra regulators are equipped to drive economic growth, secure private sector investment and protect the environment
• The customer and stakeholder experience of regulation, including the impact on those who are regulated
• The efficiency of regulation, in particular whether the current regulatory landscape involves any duplication and/or contradiction, and whether there are opportunities to make improvements.

Dan Corry has been an adviser in many Government departments where he was involved in regulatory reform.  Furthermore, he previously served as Head of the No10 Policy Unit under former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

With delinking, English entitlements have disappeared (and thus have a nil value). The loss of the capital value can be offset against other gains for Capital Gains Tax.  This is only the case where entitlements were purchased (or inherited) – either on their own or part of an overall land transaction.  In the former case, there will be an actual purchase value to work from.  However, if the entitlements were ‘bundled’ into a land purchase or inheritance, the value may not be known.  We have had some questions on historic capital values of entitlements.  If anyone would like the data, please contact us.

The Welsh Government is consulting on its proposal to designate a new National Park.  This is planned to be a similar area to the existing Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).  This lies to the west of Wrexham and runs from Llangollen down to the sea at Prestatyn.  The consultation runs until the 16th December and can be found at – https://ymgynghori.cyfoethnaturiol.cymru/north-east-gogledd-ddwyrain/new-national-park-proposal-information-page-wales/ .

The Defra Secretary has promised that the much-delayed Land Use Framework for England will be published shortly.  Speaking on the Farming Today programme on the 24th Septmber, Steve Reed, promised that a three-month consultation on the document will be opened ‘before Christmas’.

The UK government has indefinitely postponed the introduction of ‘Not for EU’ labels on meat and dairy products sold across Great Britain.  These were due to be introduced next month.  This delay follows concerns raised by industry stakeholders about the estimated £250 million annual cost to businesses, stemming from packaging changes and related operational impacts.

The policy emerged as a result of the agreement that the Conservative Government struck with the EU last year to manage meat and dairy trade from GB to Northern Ireland (NI).  Some products were deemed as being ‘high risk’ by the EU and which could find their way into the Republic of Ireland, thus potentially affecting the EU Single Market and its associated biosecurity standards.  This deal known as the Windsor Framework and the associated ‘Not for EU’ labelling was originally implemented in Northern Ireland from October 2023.  In a bid to allay DUP concerns, the Conservatives opted to roll out the ‘not for EU’ labelling across the UK.  But the recent Labour announcement has shelved these plans.

Agri-food businesses and trade associations will generally welcome the news although some organisations have already introduced ‘not for EU’ labelling in the ‘white space’ on the labels for food products where it can be done relatively cost effectively.  That said, there will be some frustration regarding the sunk costs which would already have invested to prepare for the change and the uncertainty that such late announcements create.  Businesses would much prefer greater lead times so that they can appropriately plan for such changes. 

Defra has released statistics on farm business management practices.  The information comes from the Farm Business Survey (FBS) and relates to the 2022/23 survey year.  It shows there has been a slight improvement in the proportion of businesses undertaking management practices since the last such survey in 2016/17.  However, the improvement has been quite modest.  The table below summarises the findings.

It can be seen that, by far, the most common management practice is to have an ‘informal plan’.  It is unclear what the definition of this is (it appears to be self-selected by respondents).  It may not be contributing much to improved business performance, however.  Elsewhere in the publication there are statsitcs that compared economic performance of farms with the practices they undertake.  In almost all cases better performance is correlated with the uptake of management practices.  The exception is the Informal Plan category where high, medium and low performers all have an uptake of around 60%.   

As the data comes from the FBS, it is unsurprising that a high percentage of farms take part in FBS benchmarking.  The drop in Other benchmarking since 2016/17 is likely to be a result of the demise of AHDB benchmarking services.

The full statistics release, with much more detail on differences between sectors, farm sizes, and perceived barriers to uptake, can be found at  https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/farm-business-management-practices/farm-business-management-practices-in-england-202223-statistics-notice.  It also covers the risk-management practices undertaken by farmers.

The big question in terms of farm support over the next few months is how much funding there will be for 2025 and beyond.  The process by which we find out is unclear.  By reading various statements from the Treasury, we believe the timetable is as follows;

• the Budget on 30th October will set Departmental spending for 2025/26, including Defra’s.  This may also cover ‘in-year’ adjustments for the 2024/25 year, including any clawback of unspent Defra funds for other purposes 
• soon after (or concurrently), Defra shoudl then provide the Agriculture budget for the 2025 BPS year and BPS deductions for 2025 in England
• a comprehensive Spending Review will conclude in spring next year.  This will be for a minimum of three years (for 2026/27 to 2028/29) so would cover support years 2026 to 2028 – through to the end of the Agricultural Transition

We will, of course, keep you updated on any developments.

At the time of writing, there was no indication of when the SFI 2024 would be open to all applicants.  At present there is still a requirement, for those that wish to make an application, to fill out an expression-of-interest (https://defragroup.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cSGsCBrA5Kim3H0).  The Rural Payments Agency then invites people to make a full application.  It is unclear how long the ‘waiting list’ is of those who have expressed an interest, but have yet been asked to submit a full application.

There are a number of teething issues with the application system – perhaps not surprising when their are 102 different options to try and integrate.  The SFI is also being run on the RPA’s legacy computer systems.  It might be supposed that these are perhaps not at the cutting edge of computer technology….   The SFI is unlikely to be opened fully (including to those who have not previously made a BPS claim) until these issues are resolved.  We have received no indication of when this might be.  We would guess at least a month if not longer.

A  number of other questions are still to be answered.  Earlier in the year further options under the SFI were promised.  These include an education access option and further ‘endorsed’ options on wildlife, grass habitats, heritage, wood pasture, orchards, coastal habitats and waterbodies.  There is no information as yet on when these might be launched.  It is also unclear whether any extra SFI options will be made available in 2025.  We would guess not, with the SFI 2024 being given a chance to ‘bed-in’ for a while – but this is not certain given previous scheme changes. 

There is also the question of what is happening with Countryside Stewardship (CS).  This is essentially now just a Higher-Tier scheme as the SFI has subsumed almost all Mid-Tier options.  A new CS application process was promised in the second half of 2024 with year-round applications rather than just a one-off window.  Things have gone rather quiet on this.  Many farmers already in an existing Higher Tier agreement, or in an HLS agreement that is rolling-on, wish to enter the SFI but the system currently prevents this.

Hopefully, now new Ministers have their feet under the table, we will see some more announcements on these issues.  

A new Chairman has been appointed to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee.  The new head of the Commons committee is Liberal Democrat, Alistair Carmichael.  Mr Carmichael has been MP for Orkney and Shetland since 2001.  He is the son of hill farmers on Islay.  The EFRA Committee holds Defra and its associated bodies to account.

The Welsh Government has provided an update on the progress towards the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS).  A number of Government and Stakeholder groups are reviewing the all of the Universal Actions and key Scheme Rules.  The plan is that, once the Universal Actions and Scheme Rules have been ‘refined’, further modelling work will be undertaken to produce a revised Integrated Impact Assessment.  It will be next year before Ministers make any final decisions on the the rules of the SFS.  The Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies, has promised to update the Senedd later this year on progress, but has said he will not provide a ‘running commentary’ on the development of scheme.  More details can be found at – https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-sustainable-farming-scheme-sfs-update-partnership-working .