My Lords, I thank my noble friend for bringing forward this little group of statutory instruments. I shall pursue what
was raised in Sub-Committee B’s report—the 18th report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. The Sub-Committee has invited this Committee to probe for more financial information. I have a series of questions and I shall try not to repeat myself.
There will be schemes that have finished, and new schemes that will commence but end after a key date—that could be 2021-22. What advice are my noble friend and his department giving to those who may be in a position to enter a new scheme but are reluctant to do so, since they are not sure whether it will complete and what the funding will be for it? My understanding is that there are schemes that fall into that category, and concern has been raised.
Paragraph 7.5 of the Explanatory Memorandum to the rural development regulations says:
“On EU exit, the UK will seek reimbursement from the EU for all CAP payments made to beneficiaries up to 29 March 2019”.
On what basis? We are still members of the European Union, so I would just like to know what the legal basis is for that. It seems very odd, because we are committed to the EU schemes between 2014 and 2019. It says “up to”, so I just ask for clarification, because I do not understand what the legal basis is. It goes on to say:
“Thereafter, such funding will be provided by HM Treasury”.
I know this is of great interest to the farming press and the farming community generally. What is the budget from which those funds will be provided, going forward?
The paragraph goes on:
“The UK Government has guaranteed that any EAFRD projects, where funding has been agreed before the end of 2020, will be funded for their full lifetime”.
Again, it would be helpful to know where these funds are coming from. It continues:
“The guarantee also means that Defra and the devolved administrations can continue to sign new projects this year and during 2020”.
What will be the duration of those schemes? Again, where will the money come from? It goes on:
“In addition, the Government has pledged to continue to commit the same … total in funds for farm support until the end of this Parliament, expected in 2022”.
This has been exercising me for some time. The Government have consistently said that we are committed to paying money until the end of this Parliament, which is expected in 2022. It begs the question: if a general election—heaven forfend—is held before 2022, possibly this year, does that leave the door open for a newly elected Government to cease to pay those funds for those three years, from 2019 to 2022, particularly if there is a change of Government? It is just not clear and it gives us the opportunity to clarify that this afternoon.
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Going forward, I think the Government have said that there is to be a transitional phase of continuing to support farmers with the schemes that are the subject of this SI from 2022 until 2027. Is that to be the subject of a different statutory instrument or does it rightly fall within this instrument? Again, does my noble friend the Minister have any idea as to what the
funds will be? I know that farmers tend to plan a year or longer ahead, so it would be helpful to know whether the department envisages similar types of schemes to those which have qualified. My concern is about taking the active farmer out and changing the Countryside Stewardship Scheme to natural capital schemes, where the tariffs have been published but we do not yet know what these environmental benefit schemes are.
I know that this is largely an argument we will have—a discussion, not an argument—when we debate the Agriculture Bill. I was very wedded to the idea of rewarding all the farmers and landowners who perform environmental schemes for the public good. However, if you do not own the land you will not get the money. My noble friend will hear an awful lot about this but there are graziers and tenant farmers who, at the moment, receive small amounts of money that are keeping them in farming and enabling them to tend a hillside. Short of sheep and cattle grazing, it is difficult to envisage how else we are going to see those hills being managed.
I have covered all the ground that I wished to; most of these points were also raised in paragraph 3 on page 3 of the Sub-Committee’s report. The instrument obviously begs a number of questions, which I have set out, but I hope that my noble friend will take the opportunity to allay a number of fears.