Financial Assistance Statutory Instrument consultation

Defra conducted a short consultation during August 2020 on a proposed new Statutory Instrument to cover four financial assistance schemes: Environmental Land Management (ELM), the Tree Health Pilot, the simplified Countryside Stewardship 2022 scheme, and Productivity Grant Schemes.

The consultation covered issues around what data would be published about recipients of funding within each scheme as well as Defra's proposed approach to checking eligibility, monitor agreements and enforcement. Under Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes, Defra was required to publish data about grants given on the CAP Payments website.

The department propose to replicate this data publication for new schemes. It also proposed the publication of Land Management Plans, which are likely to form the core of the new ELM agreements. The CLA strongly disagrees with this approach because the information in a Land Management Plan may be commercially sensitive and not suitable for publication.