Financial assistance: forms, conditions, delegation and publication of information

Part of Agriculture Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:45 am on 1 November 2018.

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Photo of George Eustice George Eustice The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 11:45, 1 November 2018

I am grateful for the opportunity to explain what we intend to do under clause 2(5) and also under clause 2(4), which is of relevance as a linked power. The issue is connected with something the hon. Gentleman highlighted earlier in our debates on clause 1: how we intend to administer a scheme in which we might have individual-level farm contracts. He has often expressed scepticism about the Rural Payments Agency and its suitability for the task. As the Committee knows, I have always defended that agency, because I know what a hideously dysfunctional EU system it has to operate in.

That said, what we seek to achieve with subsections (4) and (5) is as follows. We want to move to a new system with these contracts, so that a human being—an individual expert agronomist or an expert in ecology and environment—can visit a farm, walk it with the farmer and help him put together an environmental plan for his own individual holding, taking account of soil type, farming practices, the water catchment area he is in and so on. Once they have helped the farmer put together the scheme—perhaps sat around the kitchen table—the agreement can then be passed to a Government agency for approval.

What we seek to achieve with subsection (5), therefore, is the possibility of UKAS-accredited organisations operating UKAS-accredited schemes to assist us in this process and to help with the administration of a future scheme so that it works in a more sensible way. For instance, that could involve the Soil Association being empowered, as it is now, to accredit an individual farm to say that it is indeed organic. That happens now, and we have the power to do that. It could also involve empowering the RPSCA to run an accredited scheme on animal welfare, against which we might pay out an incentive. It could involve schemes with the RSPB, which might accredit a farmland birds package. I might add that an agronomist whom a farmer really trusts and works with could seek to become accredited by the Government to give advice in the design of an on-farm contract and scheme. He could work that up with the farmer and then submit it to get approval from the Government.

We seek to achieve something altogether more tailored and more local, where local knowledge can be brought to bear to help design these schemes. That is a far cry from what we have now, where it is all about clunky mapping, digital maps and onerous application forms sent into some office somewhere, with people then having to sift through information and enter it all on to a computer system, with all the problems inherent to that. If we want to get much more local knowledge and much more tailored schemes, we should engage partners locally, where they are able to benefit. That is what we intend to achieve through subsection (5).