Baroness Rock: My Lords, I too pay tribute to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Carlisle for his valuable contributions to this House. I declare my interests as a tenant farmer and as chair of the Tenancy Working Group and the Rock Review. I pay particular tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Dillington, and the members of the Select Committee for producing such a thorough and extremely...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I declare my farming interests as set out in the register and that I was chair of the Tenancy Working Group. Recommendation 11 of the Rock Review is that “Defra should define food security as a public good alongside other environmental objectives such as clean air, clean water, lower carbon emissions, and improving biodiversity.” With this in mind, British farmers, including...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I declare my interests as a tenant farmer and as chairman of the Rock review into England’s agricultural tenancies. The Government’s procedural amendments will increase parliamentary oversight of the design and future development of the animal welfare provisions. The Government recognise that there is a need to safeguard animal welfare, and that is why we need a step-by-step...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, tenant farmers face acute risk of greenwashing, as landlords seek to take tenanted land back, to access public and private markets. The Rock review has already seen evidence of tenant farmers in England being served notices to quit for this purpose. What are the Government doing to ensure that we support our vital tenant farmers and do not lose tenanted land from delivering food and...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, we all share profound and deep sadness at the passing of the Her Majesty the Queen. We are indebted to her for her life of service, her dignity and her devotion to public duty. As we in this House treasure our personal memories, I remember my first meeting with Her late Majesty. I was 11 years old and I presented her with flowers in Westminster Abbey. Her warmth and smile on that...
Baroness Rock: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that tenant farmers on short-term, restrictive Farm Business Tenancies will not be constrained from entering new Environmental Land Management Schemes by their landlords.
Baroness Rock: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposals from the Tenant Farmers Association to amend the taxation framework within which landlords of farmland make decisions about letting land to encourage longer term farm business tenancies; and what plans they have, if any, to implement these changes.
Baroness Rock: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to schedule a meeting between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and representatives of the Tenant Farmers Association to discuss the proposals for amendments to the taxation framework.
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I declare my interests as a director of a tenant farm and a trustee of the Prince’s Countryside Fund, whose aim is to enable family farms to thrive. An increasing amount of future farm income will come from the various ELM schemes. However, areas such as biodiversity offsetting and tree planting do not fall within the definition of agriculture. Over a third of farmers in the UK...
Baroness Rock: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 to include similar provisions to those set out in section 19A of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986.
Baroness Rock: To ask Her Majesty's Government why questions about land occupation were not asked of farmers submitting an expression of interest to take part in the pilot Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme; and whether they will now consider asking those farmers to provide information about their land occupation status.
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I declare my interest as a director of Wrackleford Farms Ltd, a tenant farming enterprise. I shall speak to Amendments 81, 82, 83, 85 and 86, which stand in my name. I am grateful for the support of the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, for these amendments. I shall also speak to Amendments 69 and 89 in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Devon, Amendment 84 in...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I declare my interest as a director of Wrackleford Farms Ltd, a tenant farming enterprise. I shall speak to Amendment 42. The amendment, supported by the NFU, would ensure that farmers entitled to payments receive those payments within guaranteed timescales to help ensure certainty of cash flow. I thank my noble friend Lord Caithness for his support. I said in Committee that any...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, again I declare my interests as a director of a tenant farming enterprise. I support Amendment 237 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh. I was pleased to add my name to Amendments 238 and 243 to 246. I welcome the clear intention to ensure that tenants are not excluded from financial assistance schemes. Amendment 238 seeks only to ensure that all potential circumstances...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I declare my interest as a director of a tenant farming enterprise as set out in the register. I shall speak to my Amendments 150 to 153. Although there is an understandable desire to demonstrate that we are moving away from the old regime of the CAP, we must do so in a way that is effective rather than just quick. The delay in our exit from the EU and the implications of Covid-19...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I speak to Amendment 128 in my name, and declare my interests as set out in the register. Time is running out to have all necessary legislation and implementation decisions and processes in place in the timescale set. There are still many aspects of transition and the success of future farming support policy that remain unclear, and the concern is that there will be a gap between...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I declare my farming interests as set out in the register. I too add my support to Amendment 12 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Curry of Kirkharle. I will speak to my Amendment 62, which would give the Secretary of State additional powers to enable the support of diversification activities on farms where the purpose of that activity is to support or maintain the agricultural,...
Baroness Rock: My Lords, I declare my farming interests as set out in the register. This Bill is the most critical piece of legislation for domestic agriculture for more than 50 years. I commend the Government on the significant improvements made in comparison with the Bill introduced to Parliament prior to the last general election. However, there are still some issues around food security, the importance...
Baroness Rock: To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to grant schemes to support dairy and tenant farmers.
Baroness Rock: My Lords, it is, as ever, a great privilege to contribute to this important International Women’s Day debate, and I add my profound thanks to my noble friend Lady Berridge. It is also a great honour to follow the maiden speech of my noble friend Lord Ranger and to hear about his extraordinary journey and, in particular, his remarkable, resilient and resourceful mother. He is indeed lucky...
