Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me. Contrary to the suggestion in your email, the Government is not planning to tear up laws that protect wildlife sites and neither is it weakening protections for nature or scrapping proposals that would help farmers to help nature. In response to these concerns, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued the following statement earlier this week - https://deframedia.blog.gov.uk/2022/09/28/government-reiterates-commitment-to-environmental-protections/
Claims that the Government is rowing back on commitments to our farming reforms or nature are wholly untrue. Now that we are outside of the European Union, the UK is free from the Common Agricultural Policy, which did little to deliver for farmers, farming or the environment. The Government was elected on a manifesto which pledged to maintain the budget for farming but spend it in a way that does better for farming and nature.
My ministerial colleagues and I want to support the choices that individual farmers make for their farms, boost food production and agricultural productivity. This will bolster the rural economy and support communities across the country. Ministers are rolling out new schemes which will support farmers to both produce high quality food and enhance the natural environment.
Further, the Environment Act 2021 includes a commitment to halt the decline of nature by 2030. This Government will never undermine its commitments to the environment in pursuit of growth. Any reforms will rightly contribute to growing our economy in equal step with successfully meeting our commitments in the 25 Year Environment Plan and the legally binding environmental targets through this Act.
Internationally, the UK has committed to protect 30 per cent of its land and ocean by 2030, through the Leaders Pledge for Nature, which committed to putting nature and biodiversity globally on a road to recovery by 2030.
We have the chance to have a farming industry that is more independent and resilient. It will be an industry that champions economic growth and increases domestic production while returning nature to the land and improving the natural assets, such as soil, that support food production.
Finally, many of the protections and the creation of the Environmental Land Management Scheme occurred as a result of specific measures introduced by the Government in the Environment Act which was introduced last year. Further information about the measures in the Act are set out my website here: Environment Bill - November 2021 | Richard Fuller
Thank you for getting in touch.
Sincerely,
