Evidence Session
Environment Land Management Scheme progress update
Tuesday 15 November 2.30 pm, Committee Room 6
Watch live on parliamentlive.tv
Rt Hon Mark Spencer MP, the Minister for Food – a post which includes responsibility for farming payments and reform – will answer questions from the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee at an evidence session on government financial support for the agricultural sector.
The session is part of a committee inquiry into the rollout of the government’s Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) which is replacing, post-Brexit, the EU Common Agricultural Policy.
ELMS will pay farmers and other land users for public goods (such as clean water, soil health and protecting against hazards like flooding) instead of direct payments based on the amount of land owned.
Dr Neil Hudson MP for Penrith and The Border and Member of the EFRA Committee said,
“Our Cross Party EFRA Committee continues our Inquiry that I triggered on the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) rollout. Representing a rural constituency in Cumbria with a huge farming sector, it is vital to me and my constituents that this new Government scheme works well for our farmers who do so much to produce food for us all whilst looking after our environment. Our Committee will look to make recommendations to Government to help improve these schemes.”
MPs on the committee are likely to ask Minister Spencer about:
- the future of ELMS and whether current pressures on farmers (such as rising energy costs) might change government plans;
- the timescale for implementing ELMS; and
- how the government plans to address the sector’s concerns about the lack of certainty around the detail of the new scheme.
Witnesses
From 2.30 pm
- Rt Hon Mark Spencer MP, Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
- Janet Hughes, Programme Director, Future Farming and Countryside Programme, Defra
