Defra’s consultation on farm payments data: why it matters and how to submit a response

Contents:

1. Background: the consultation

2. Why is this important?

3. How should I respond?

4. How long will it take?

5. Where do I send my response?

This document introduces Defra’s consultation on the data that will be published about payments to farmers after we leave the EU and the current CAP scheme.

It explains why better data is vital for anyone who cares about the environment in the UK, and how to make your views known to Defra.

The deadline for responses to Defra is Tuesday 1 September. We think it should take no more than 20 minutes to respond.

To discuss any of the issues here, please get in touch.

A new Agriculture Bill is before Parliament, under which farmers in England will be paid to deliver ‘environmental goods’ like soil quality, wildlife conservation, and public access.

This is a huge, and welcome, change from the current system, where farmers receive a fixed payment per acre, and a vast amount of public money - over £3.5 billion in the UK each year.

A key open question in the Bill is what data should be made public about who and what is being funded. Good information on this is vital for anyone who cares about the environment in the UK.

Defra has opened an official consultation about what should be published, with a deadline of Tuesday 1 September 2020.

Unfortunately, the official consultation shows that the plans are to publish only minimal data.

There are two major problems with the proposed data:

1. It won’t show where the funding is going. There’s no commitment to publish geospatial boundaries in structured form. Without this, we won’t be able to analyse or map where the funding for a particular species is being delivered, confirm whether new wildlife habitats are really being created, or understand which interventions are really working to support farmers and the environment.

2. It won’t show who the funding is being paid to. Only the name of the immediate recipient is published. This is often an intermediary, not the ultimate beneficiary. Also, the data doesn’t include company numbers. These missing elements reduce the usefulness of the data, and make it harder to join with other datasets.

We need Defra to commit to publishing better data on the beneficiaries of payments, and on the geospatial boundaries of the land being funded.

This will make it easier for researchers to identify successful land management initiatives, for the public to engage with local farming practice, and for entrepreneurs to create new ways to support farmers and the environment.

There’s a real opportunity here for Britain to lead the world in creating evidence-based, effective environmental land management schemes - but for this, we need rich, open geospatial data.

See Section 3 below for full details and how to respond.

Future opportunities to improve the data will be limited. Because some beneficiaries are individuals, what’s published must be specified in secondary legislation. This makes it hard to change - so you only have until 1 September 2020 to make your views heard.

Responding is easy:

• To make life simple, click here to make your own copy of our answers and notes (Google Docs) - you can then edit them to make them your own!
  Or alternatively, download the blank template for responses here (Word) and refer to our notes here.

• Add your organisation’s details and your responses to the questions.

• Email your response to FinancialAssistanceConsult@defra.gov.uk by Tuesday 1 September 2020.

We think that it shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to respond, if you work from the briefings above.

Of course, if you’d like to submit a more detailed response, we’d encourage you to do that!

Email your response to FinancialAssistanceConsult@defra.gov.uk by midnight on 1 September 2020.

If you have feedback or questions, we’re really happy to chat - please get in touch.