I thank my noble friend Lord Lucas for his Amendments 29 and 217, with which I will also discuss Amendment 224 in the name of my noble friend Lord Caithness. Soil is indeed one of our greatest natural assets and the Government are committed to having sustainably managed soils by 2030, as set out in the 25-year environment plan. Providing financial incentives for protecting and improving the quality of soil will help to protect and improve all the properties that contribute to healthy soil. The 25-year environment plan sets out the Government’s ambition to have sustainably managed soils by 2030. A healthy soils indicator is being developed as part of a framework of indicators under the plan.
My noble friend Lord Caithness asked about spending commitments in the plan. This spend has been allocated to developing a robust and informative soil health
indicator and monitoring scheme, and the Government are currently in the process of confirming actions for their work programme to protect and improve soil quality. The Government will develop a definition of soil health with stakeholders. To ensure that it captures the complete picture of soil health, this definition will be a balance of biological, chemical and physical characteristics, and could therefore include characteristics that help define the biodiverse nature of the soil, such as earthworms and fungi, as mentioned by my noble friend Lord Lucas.
To help achieve this target, the Government are considering the development of a soil monitoring scheme informed by natural capital approaches. As such, this scheme will recognise the relationships between soil properties and the ecosystem services that soil provides, such as clean water and carbon storage. A new soil monitoring scheme would provide a baseline national-scale picture of the state of our soils. This will enable the Government to quantify targets for improvements and then monitor progress towards these targets. These metrics could directly feed into ELM to incentivise better management approaches. Maintaining the metrics of measure across national and localised schemes will enable shared data collection, storage and analysis to further inform impacts of management actions.
There are a number of key vehicles through which the Government are working to address soil quality. These include: this Bill, which will provide financial assistance for the protection and improvement of soils; the Environment Bill, which will allow a future soils target to be set; the 25-year environment plan, through which a soil indicator is being developed; and the new ELM scheme, which could act as a lever for incentivising sustainable soil practices. Protecting and improving our soils will involve a wide variety of actions, reflecting the wide diversity in soil quality, soil types and land uses in England. This would include actions to protect our best grade 1 and 2 lands as well as actions to improve the poorer-quality grade land—in the words of the father of the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, farming within the grain of nature, cropping not quarrying.
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I turn to Amendments 39 and 96 from my noble friend Lord Caithness, Amendments 40, 42, 84 and 97 from the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, Amendment 41 from my noble friend Lord Dundee and Amendment 48 from the noble Duke, the Duke of Wellington.
My noble friend Lord Caithness asked about ponds. Farmers have a range of long-standing permitted development rights for agricultural purposes. Where works are not for agricultural purposes, an application for planning permission may be required and applicants may wish to speak to their local planning authority.
The Government are proud of their intention to support sustainable farming as part of their new agricultural policy. Tier 1 of ELM in particular will focus on encouraging sustainable farming, as set out in the ELM discussion document published in February. Actions under this tier could include actions around: nutrient, pest, soil, or livestock management; field margins or cover; and water storage and/or use. Clause 1(1) has
been drafted in such a way that it already allows the Government to support “nature-friendly farming” and farming in a way that will protect and benefit the environment. Under it, the Government can support afforestation, agroforestry and other agroecological farming methods.
A number of noble Lords mentioned definitions, including the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, and my noble friend Lord Blencathra. I have these definitions somewhere in my notes; I will come back to that point in a moment.
Land managers who afforest parts of their land or adopt environmentally sustainable farming techniques such as agroforestry and agroecology, will be in a good position to benefit from ELM. The Government recognise that meeting their commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050 requires a step change in woodland creation. That is why they have committed to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025, in line with the annual rate recommended by the Committee on Climate Change in 2019 to help meet the net-zero target.
I turn now to Amendments 38 and 120 from the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville. Applying agroecological approaches to farming, including integrated pest and weed management measures, can help to deliver important environmental benefits. This is recognised in the Government’s National Action Plan for the Sustainable use of Pesticides, which is currently being reviewed. In answer to the question from the noble Baroness, this is the next step in the integrated pest management plan. We will consult on the draft plan later this year. I hope that this may also allay some of the fears and concerns expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Burnett.
As part of this, the Government are considering the extent to which targets may have a role to play in supporting the delivery of integrated pest management. Clause 1(1)(a) could include support for integrated pest and weed management. Given its environmental credentials, those who apply integrated pest and weed management and other agroecological farming techniques will be very well placed to benefit from ELM.
Turning to Amendment 259, I reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, that the assessment and monitoring of pesticides proposed by the amendment are already carried out and the results are published. A number of other noble Lords spoke powerfully on this subject, including the noble Lords, Lord Patel and Lord Burnett, my noble friend Lord Blencathra, and none more powerfully and with greater authority than the noble Lord, Lord Wigley.
The Government’s 25-year environment plan emphasises integrated pest management. This means that sustainable biological, physical and other non-chemical methods are preferred to pesticides. Any pesticides applied should have the least effects on human health and the environment. This will help to protect people and reduce the impacts of pesticides. It will also help farmers combat pest resistance and support agricultural productivity.
Pesticides are already strictly regulated on the basis of their effects on human health and the environment. Advice on significant scientific issues is sought from
the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides. A programme to monitor pesticide residues in food is overseen by the Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food. Both expert committees already publish an annual report and other information.
Turning to Amendment 49 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, Clause 31 will enable the Government to regulate a wider range of materials as fertilisers, particularly new and innovative types of material such as soil conditioners, bio-stimulants and organic fertilisers. This will enable the marketing of a range of alternatives to traditional mineral-based fertilisers. Defra continues to work with the industry to ensure that nutrient management recommendations do not result in losses to the environment, while providing balanced nutrition for plants.
Defra provides incentives to farmers through the Countryside Stewardship scheme to reduce nutrient inputs in specific cases. Where IPM or reduced-nutrient inputs can deliver public goods, farmers may be eligible for financial assistance through the environmental land management scheme. The agricultural research and development innovation scheme, to be introduced from 2022, will enable research into areas such as improving the nutritional output of crops and reducing pesticide use. The Government can already fund agricultural research through existing powers such as those in the Science and Technology Act 1965.
Amendment 117 from the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, raises similar issues in relation to meadows and was spoken to most powerfully by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Dillington. In addition to the points I have already covered, I note that there is already in place a regulatory protection regime for areas of land that are two hectares or over through the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (England) (No. 2) Regulations 2006, the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (England) (No. 2) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 and the Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999. These provide protection for unimproved and semi-natural grassland and other wildlife-rich habitats. Semi-natural land includes priority habitats, heritage or archaeological features, or protected landscapes. It is usually land that has not been intensively farmed, such as unimproved grassland or lowland heath.
The Government’s intentions are very much in accordance with those of my noble friend Lord Lucas. I hope that he will withdraw his amendment.