To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (i) for his assessment of whether the £267 million Single Application and Map Service and the Entitlements Transfer Service is adequate to cover the needs of the farming sector; and (ii) to detail a comparison between this year’s funding and that of each of the last five years.

The UK Government in the 2020 autumn spending review committed to maintain the total funding available to farmers, land managers and rural society in cash terms (measured against previous CAP Pillar I and Pillar II provision from EU funds) in every year of this Parliament, (to 2024/25). This provided ring fenced Resource DEL funding of £315.6m in 2021/22, £312.8m in 2022/23, £327.2m in 2023/24 and £329.4m for 2024/25 in each of the four years. CAP Pillar 1, Direct Payments and Pillar 2 EU allocations to Northern Ireland in 2019 and 2020 EU financial years was £321.6 m and £322.5 m respectively.

Future provision of funding for agricultural, environmental and rural support will be a matter for the next UK Government but I will certainly be seeking a settlement that reflects our policy objectives and ambitions.