Category: Policy & Business

The Welsh Government has announced there will be an interim agri-environment scheme to support protection of habitats on agricultural land from 1st January 2024.  This scheme will be available to bridge the gap between Glastir finishing at the end of this year and the start of the new Sustainable Farming Scheme due to commence in 2025.  Rural Affairs Minister, Lesley Griffiths has confirmed that Glastir contracts will not be extended beyond December this year.  Currently there are 2,100 Glastir Advanced, more than 450 Glastir Organic and 180 Glastir Common agreements.

The announcement has caused grave concern amongst the industry; particularly over how a scheme will practically be implemented in such a short time and over having a scheme that lasts just a year.  It is unclear whether the majority of current Glastir agreement holders will get into the interim scheme and whether accrued environmental benefits will be lost; some Glastir Agreements have been running for a long time.  But the Welsh Government has said the new scheme will enable more farmers to take part and protect habitat land.  It also means those that are in Glastir will be able to enter all the Rural Investment Schemes preparing them for the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS).  Currently, Glastir Advanced farmers are unable to apply for the Small Grants – Environmental Scheme.

Currently very little is known about the scheme, including rules and payment rates.  The Welsh Government has said the application window will open later this year, with contracts commencing in January 2024 to ensure a ‘seamless’ transition as Glastir closes.  Further details of the new scheme will be made available following discussions with stakeholders. The budget available will be announced prior to the application window opening.

A new £25m Species Survival Fund has been launched by Defra.  It is a short-term programme which will support projects with grants of between £250,000 and £3m to tackle habitat loss, safeguard fragile ecosystems and create habitats such as grasslands, woodlands and wetlands across England.  The funds are being administered by the National Lottery Heritage Fund who are looking for an individual or organisation which has a nature recovery project planned, costed and ready to start.  Environmental not-for-profit organisations, National Park Authorities and ANOBs, local authorities, farmers and land managers are all invited to apply.  EOIs need to be submitted by midday on 24th July with the full applications due by 26th October 2023.  Projects need to be completed within 2-years.  Further information can be found via https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/funding/species-survival-fund .

Six new Nature Recovery project areas have been announced by the Government.  These join the six already in place.  Between them, the twelve projects will be supported by £7.4m over the next three years.  The designation of these areas is part of the Government’s commitment to have 30% of the country’s land area ‘protected’ for the environment by 2030.  The Nature Recovery Network (NRN) brings together these areas where a number of parties are working in partnership to create large-scale environmental improvement.  They are separate to Landscape Recovery (LR) projects under ELMs.  However, there are cross-overs as the NRN projects can also bid for LR funding.  The six new areas are – Cumbrian uplands; Cheshire & Lancashire wetlands; Tees estuary; Surrey heathlands; Bradford & S. Pennines peatlands; and Sussex & Kent coasts.  More details can be found at – https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nature-recovery-projects-to-boost-wildlife-and-access-to-nature .

The Government has published regulations to end cross-compliance in England.  The snappily-titled ‘Agriculture (Removal of Cross-Compliance and Miscellaneous Revocations and Amendments, etc.) (England) Regulations 2023 – SI 816‘ will see the management requirements cease as from 1st January 2024.  Most of the cross-compliance rules are already legal requirements, so the practical effect on farms will be limited.  However, certain areas are not currently covered by the law.  Defra is working to ‘plug these gaps’ – for example around hedgerow protection, where we reported last month there was a consultation on legislative change.

The Independent Review of Labour in the Food Supply Chain has made its report to Government.  The review was commissioned by Defra in August last year and was led by John Shropshire of the G’s Fresh Group.  It looked at the situation on-farm as well as in primary processing and food manufacturing.  As an independent review, the Government does not need to accept the recommendations made or only act on some of them (as happened with the Dimbleby Food Review and the Rock Tenancy Review).  Defra’s formal response is expected in the autumn.

The review makes ten recommendations – summarised below;

• Enhance the Attractiveness of the Food Sector – a group effort by industry, Government and education providers to change public perceptions of the sector, improve careers advice, address issues on pay and conditions, and engage hard-to-reach sectors of the workforce
• Improve the Seasonal Workers Scheme – by the end of this year commit to have a scheme in place for at least 5 years.  Consider removing the current cap on numbers (45,000 plus 10,000 already announced for 2024) and extend the length of a visa form 6 months to 9 months.  Also, the Shortage Occupation List rules should be amended to allow more skilled workers into the food chain
• Invest in Domestic Workers – the sector, supported by the Government should spend more on training and offering clear career development
• Reform the Apprenticeship Levy – simplify the rules and make them more flexible so more firms can benefit
• Skills Supply Collaboration – greater collaboration between Government, education providers and industry through formal structures
• Food Career Curriculum – Higher Education funding bodies to review food supply chain-related subjects to ensure courses are relevant to industry needs
• Workforce Data Strategy – improve data on labour and skills in the food sector to help ensure an adequate workforce pipeline
• Incentivise Automation – ensure grants are available to help businesses invest in efficiency-improving technology
• Automation Knowledge Sharing – improve take-up of automation by disseminating best-practice and leading-edge developments
• ‘Moonshot’ Approach to Innovation – collaboration needed between all stakeholders where there are specific technological gaps holding back innovation

The report highlights that the Food and Drink Sector Council (FDSC) should be the body charged with implementing many of the recommendations.  The full report can be found at – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-into-labour-shortages-in-the-food-supply-chain

It appears that those with SFI 2022 agreements containing the ‘old’ Soils Standard will be served notice to end their agreements – i.e. this will be mandatory rather than a choice.  They will then be invited to join SFI 2023 instead.    Although the new SFI Guidance just says ‘..we’ll write to farmers with existing agreements for the SFI 2022 Standards…’, in a letter to the House of Commons, the Farming Minister, Mark Spencer has said ‘..we are going to end existing SFI 2022 agreements and ask farmers to enter a new SFI 2023 agreement so that they can access the full range of improvements and actions in the 2023 offer…’.  It is also stated that those with an existing SFI agreement containing the discontinued Soil actions (adding organic matter to soils, single species winter cover on arable land, and minimising bare land on grassland) will be offered a ‘closure payment’ to cover any loss of income arising from the transition from their 2022 agreement to the 2023 offer.  There are no details on what these payments might be or how they might work but ‘SFI Early Closure Payment’ has been added to the SFI Query Form which can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1169001/SFI01_v2.0.pdf.  

The Agriculture (Wales) Bill passed its final stage in the Senedd on 27th June 2023.  The Bill will now seek Royal Assent and is expected to come into force in Wales later in the summer.  This is the first ever Agriculture Bill for Wales and it sets out the framework for Sustainable Land Management, the over-riding principle of Welsh future farm policy, which includes the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) the replacement for the BPS and Glastir.  The vote means the Welsh Government can move ahead with delivering the SFS which is planned to commence in 2025.

Defra has opened a consultation seeking views on the protection of hedgerows.  With Delinking of the Basic Payment, the cross-compliance regulatory framework will no longer apply in England from 2024.  In most cases, these rules are already in domestic legislation and will continue to provide protection to the environment and animals.  Farmers and land managers must legally continue to comply with these requirements and regulatory authorities have powers to enforce them.  However, some of the cross-compliance measures do not have a legal under-pinning; this is the case with hedgerows and other field boundaries, plus soils and watercourse buffer strips.  In all these areas Defra is actively considering the most appropriate approach to prevent environmental harm and encourage good practice, whether that is through regulation, incentive or other means.

In terms of hedgerows, outside of cross-compliance, legal protection is provided by the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, but these are limited in scope and there is no direct domestic equivalent of the hedgerow management measures currently provided for under cross-compliance and, in particular, GAEC 7a.  Defra has therefore opened a consultation and are proposing two options to protect hedgerows in the future.  The first is by replicating the existing cross compliance GAEC 7a requirements in domestic law, by making changes to the Hedgerows Regulation 1997.  These would include:

• a requirement to ensure green cover on land 2m from the centre of a hedgerow in all fields over 2 hectares
• a requirement not to spray pesticide or fertiliser on land within 2m of the base of a hedgerow on all fields over 2 hectares
• to ensure that hedge cutting and management takes account of wildlife within hedgerows and supports biodiversity (cutting dates)

Views are also being sought on keeping the current exemptions; excluding parcels of less than 2 hectares, allowing early trimming for the purposes of OSR & temporary grassland and also exempting holdings under 5 hectares.

An alternative approach would look to develop new legal protections for hedgerows, and views are being sought on what requirements would be most effective at preventing environmental harm without unnecessary burdens on landowners.

In regards to timings, the latter would need Primary legislation, which would not be able to begin before autumn 2024, meaning measures would not come into force until late 2025 at the earliest.  Whereas changes to the Hedgerows Regulation 1997 could be in place for summer 2024.

The full consultation can be found via https://consult.defra.gov.uk/legal-standards/consultation-on-protecting-hedgerows/  views have to be submitted by 20th September.

A report has outlined 14 recommendations to help lowland peatlands contribute more to greenhouse gas mitigation.  This largely involves allowing the land to become wetter to prevent the escape of existing carbon locked in the soils, plus sequesting additional carbon.  It is acknowledged that there are significant trade-offs, with these peat soils being some of the most productive in the UK and growing a large proportion of high-value crops.  New forms of wetland farming (‘paludiculture’) are proposed.  For details see – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lowland-agricultural-peat-task-force-chairs-report .  The report was commissioned by Government but was independent.  In response, Defra has committed an extra £7.5m to fund pilot projects on water management on peatland.