Accredited official statistics

Chapter 1: Key events

Updated 9 July 2026

Government and Policy

Key Announcements 2025

On 9 January, Secretary of State (SoS) Steve Reed provided the keynote speech at the Oxford Farming Conference outlining planning reforms to support food production, fairer supply chain rules and committing to protect farmers in trade deals.

On 31 January, SoS launched the Land Use Framework Consultation at Royal Geographical Society.

On 17 February, RPA made 75% partial payments in advance to Countryside Stewardship customers to help with cashflow.

On 25 February, SoS provided the keynote speech at the NFU conference, announcing a 5-year extension to the Seasonal workers scheme, a new Farming Equipment and Technology (FETF) Fund window, Capital Grants reopening, increases to Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) payment rates, and a new National Biosecurity Centre.

On 11 March, Defra stopped accepting new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI24) applications following record uptake from farmers.

On 7 April, it was announced that Baroness Minette Batters had been appointed to lead a review of farm profitability.

On 14 April, Defra opened the new Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) competition, committing up to £20.6 million of funding in 25/26.

On 25 April, two Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) competitions launched - Precision Breeding and Low Emissions Farming, with £25 million available.

On 7 May, a new round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) made £46.7 million available to boost profitability by helping farmers cut costs while increasing efficiency.

On 28 May, a £30 million investment increased Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) payment rates.

On 2 June, a new £5 million round of the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) Investor Partnerships competition opened.

On 16 June, the Spending Review allocated more than £2.7 billion a year to sustainable farming and nature recovery from 2026 to 2029. As part of this, funding for the Environmental Land Management Schemes paid to farmers will increase by 150% over this period.

On 3 July, SoS spoke at Groundswell Show, announcing the reopening of the Capital Grant scheme with £150 million in funding to support nature-friendly farming.

On 18 September, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier opened for applications.

On 26 September, Alan Laidlaw was announced as the Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector to promote fair standards and tackle poor practice.

On 15 October, Defra offered one-year extensions to over 5,000 Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier (CS MT) agreement holders.

On 20 November, new SoS Emma Reynolds attended the CLA Conference in Westminster and set her vision for English farming, providing early information about the reformed SFI.

On 1 December, the government published the revised Environment Improvement Plan. £500 million was announced in Landscape Recovery funding to help restore nature.

On 18 December, Baroness Batters’s Profitability Review was published on the GOV.UK website.

On 22 December, the Defra Animal Welfare Strategy outlined major reforms and protections for livestock, pets, and wildlife.

On 23 December, Inheritance tax relief threshold increased for farmers and businesses from £1m to £2.5m from April 2026 – allowing spouses or civil partners to pass on up to £5m in qualifying agricultural or business assets between them.

Key contextual factors

Global events

Global instability

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a significant impact on input prices, including energy and fertilisers. These costs have reduced steadily since they peaked in 2022 but are still higher than they were before the war. Rising tensions in the Middle East also created uncertainty in the supply of gas and shipping of fertiliser, further increasing price volatility.

Labour shortages

Labour availability is a challenge shared by most farmers. The lack of skilled labour combined with increased minimum wages are ensuring labour comes at an increased cost.

Inflation

Inflation was fairly stable throughout 2025, and the Bank of England’s base rate continued to decline. However, it remained high compared to pre-2021 levels, reducing profits and eroding the real-term value of direct support. High inflation also created upward pressure on wages to mitigate its impact on workers.

Food price inflation, which peaked in March 2023 at 19.2%, declined until mid 2024, but then rose slightly throughout 2025 finishing the year at 4.5%.

Exchange rates

The relationship between the pound and euro has a key bearing on the fortunes of UK farming, as most UK exports of agricultural commodities are made to the Eurozone. A weaker pound increases the competitiveness of UK exports but increases the price of imports, including inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides. The pound substantially weakened against the euro in 2016 and has remained relatively stable since. In 2025, the pound was stable through the winter before trending downwards for the rest of the year. It then began to strengthen again from November.

Weather

2025 was a double record-breaker: the UK’s warmest and sunniest year on record. A key feature was the prolonged warm, dry, and sunny weather across much of the UK during the spring and summer.

Winter

Winter 2025 was generally unsettled. Low-pressure systems brought rain, wind and wintry showers across the country, along with two named storms.

All four countries saw above average mean winter temperatures. Wales and Northern Ireland were slightly warmer than England and Scotland. Rainfall totals were below average for all regions, with the UK having only 89% of the 1991-2020 average rainfall. It was a duller than average winter, although Scotland and Northern Ireland did see slightly above average sunshine.

Spring

Spring 2025 was mainly dry and settled with high pressure dominating for most of the season. It was the UK’s warmest and sunniest spring on record, and the sixth driest. However, regional variation in rainfall meant it was England’s second driest spring on record.

Exceptions to this general picture included wintry showers over Scotland in mid-March and a series of fronts in mid-April which brought heavy rain, with Northern Ireland particularly wet.

Summer

Summer 2025 was the warmest UK summer on record, dominated by high pressure with a series of lengthy warm spells and several heatwaves, frontal rain and storms.

Overall rainfall was below average, with August seeing just 62% of average rainfall for the UK. This was despite wet spells in some areas caused by Storm Floris and the remnants of Hurricane Erin. Only western Scotland and northwest England recorded above average summer rainfall. Sunshine hours were above average across the whole of the summer.

Autumn

Autumn 2025 saw slightly above average temperatures and above average rainfall. The weather was unsettled, with three named storms and low-pressure systems bringing frontal rain across the country.

Overall, this was a rather wet autumn with the UK recording 120% of average autumn rainfall, exceeding 200% in parts of Wales, Northern Ireland and northern England in September. The UK recorded 95% of average sunshine hours for autumn overall, with the west of the country being the dullest. Northern Ireland recorded its dullest autumn since 1983.

Animal Health

In 2025, Defra continued to build on the initiatives that form the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, expanding access to funded advice and investment and enabling more farmers to take action to improve the health, welfare and productivity of their livestock.

The “Get funding to improve animal health and welfare” service, comprising the Animal Health and Welfare Review (AHWR) and Endemic disease follow-up, remained important to the Pathway. The AHWR offers funding for an annual vet visit tailored to individual farm needs, and the Endemic disease follow up supports targeted action on priority endemic diseases. During 2025, eligibility for the service was broadened further, with farmers able to access support for multiple species and for multiple herds or flocks of the same species under a single agreement. By the end of 2025, the total number of claims made since launch had passed 10,000, underlining the strong uptake of the offer across the sector. These visits support disease prevention, biosecurity and the responsible use of medicines.

Alongside advice and diagnostics, farmers were able to invest in practical improvements through capital funding. The 2025 Farming Equipment and Technology Fund included a £16 million animal health and welfare theme, which proved highly popular and was fully subscribed. This included improved livestock handling systems and weighing and monitoring equipment to support safer handling and earlier identification of animal health issues. In addition, applications continued to be accepted early in the year for large capital grants supporting health and welfare outcomes, enabling further on-farm investment to support improved animal health and welfare.

Avian influenza

In the 2025 calendar year, there were a total of 1,709 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks in the United Kingdom. There were 1,659 incidents of H5N1, in 43 cases of H5Nx and seven cases of H5N5. Country split is as follows:

There were 146 poultry outbreaks; 122 were in England, nine in Wales, seven in Scotland, and eight in Northern Ireland (including one in captive birds); all were H5N1.

There were 1,512 United Kingdom wild bird cases (based on laboratory testing date); 1,445 were H5N1, of which 1,028 were in England, 322 in Scotland, 95 in Wales and 17 in Northern Ireland.

A further 43 wild bird cases were H5Nx, with 30 cases in England, 10 in Scotland and three in Wales. The remaining seven cases were H5N5, with five cases in England and two in Scotland. For further details see Bird flu (avian influenza): cases in wild birds.

Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB)

England

The percentage of herds Officially TB Free in England was 96.5% at the end of 2025, an increase on 2024 (95.8%). Overall, there has been an upward trend since Q1 2018 when 93.6% of herds were TB free. Government strategy is driving for TB eradication by 2038. See the full set of the 2025 Accredited Official Statistics for TB in cattle in GB.

In late 2024, the Bovine TB Partnership for England was reformed as a co-design steering group to oversee the development of a comprehensive new bovine TB strategy for England throughout 2025. This followed the announcement of the new strategy by the then Minister, Daniel Zeichner, in August 2024.

The refreshed TB strategy, expected to be published in spring 2026, has been informed by extensive expert and public engagement. This includes input from several expert working groups involving over 100 contributors, a Citizen Dialogue structured engagement exercise, and the findings of a reconvened independent expert panel chaired by Professor Sir Charles Godfray. The panel was asked to consider whether any substantive new evidence had emerged since its 2018 review. The updated evidence review was published in September 2025.

A third and planned final phase of field trials for a new cattle TB vaccine and companion skin test (DIVA - Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals) commenced in 2025. If trials are successful, we will move closer to being able to vaccinate cattle against bTB.

In England, more than 4,000 badgers were vaccinated against TB in 2025. Vaccination was delivered by the government through the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), alongside several NGO led initiatives, including a new project led by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in Cornwall. In 2025, a new badger vaccination field force was also developed through a competitive tender process, building on a farming community led project in East Sussex.

In 2025, Natural England re-authorised culling operations to resume in 12 intensive control areas, which included one licence in the Low Risk Area. Natural England also re-authorised culling operations in nine existing supplementary badger control areas, bringing the total number of authorised areas in 2025 to 21. All remaining intensive and supplementary badger culling licences in England’s High Risk and Edge Areas ended by January 2026.

Several projects were also undertaken in 2025 aimed at collecting data on TB in wild deer, as the role of deer species is still uncertain. This involved working with farmers and deer managers in Oxfordshire and Cornwall to collect blood samples from shot deer for TB testing. This has helped demonstrate the effectiveness of stakeholder led and delivered wildlife surveillance.

Wales

In the 12 months to December 2025, the number of new TB incidents across Wales decreased to 567. This was down from 596 in the previous year, representing a 5.0% decrease. In the High TB Area West, new incidents dropped from 272 to 246, a 10.2% decrease. There has also been a decrease in the number of new incidents recorded in the Intermediate TB Area North, with a reduction from 78 to 71 (a 9.0% decrease) and the Low TB Area, with a reduction from 26 to 21 (a 19% decrease).

There has been no change in the number of new incidents in the High TB Area East, with the number remaining at 161. However, there has been an increase in new incidents in the Intermediate TB Area Mid. New incidents in the Intermediate TB Area Mid increased from 58 to 68, a 17% increase, continuing the trend in the previous year.

A new five-year Delivery Plan was introduced by the previous government in March 2023 under the guidance of the Chief Veterinary Officer. This plan incorporates the 2021-2022 consultation on a refreshed TB Eradication Programme, recommendations from the Task and Finish Group on Farmer Engagement, and the then Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee’s report on bovine TB. The Delivery Plan prioritises a partnership approach between government, farmers, and vets, and emphasises the importance of working together to meet our shared goal of TB eradication in Wales by 2041.

The governance arrangements set out in the Delivery Plan, the TB Eradication Programme Board and Technical Advisory Group (TAG), were fully operational in 2025. A key change that went through the full governance process concerned Inconclusive Reactor policy. In May 2025 the then Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs announced changes to the Inconclusive Reactor policy which would mean that standard Inconclusive Reactor cattle would be restricted to their herd for life. Preparatory work towards delivery of this change began in 2025 and the policy was operational in January 2026. The Programme Board also began work on a position paper on TB eradication in Wales, that was published in March 2026.

The Pembrokeshire Project, which began in 2023, continued in 2025 in Pembrokeshire to further explore partnership working. The project aims to establish a voluntary collaborative approach between a farmer and their vet to reduce residual disease, and encourage farmers to bring in voluntary measures to disease management beyond statutory controls. A comparable project ran on a small number of North Wales farms in 2025, aimed at keeping bovine TB out.

Scotland

Scotland continues to have a low and stable incidence of bovine tuberculosis, in line with the requirements for Officially TB Free status. In 2025, there were 11 confirmed cases of TB in Scotland.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, herd incidence for 2025 was 9.9%, with animal incidence standing at 1.068%. Both herd and animal incidence declined over the past year (from 10.7% and 1.149% respectively in 2024). Despite this improvement, disease rates remain at historically high levels, while the annual cost of delivering the Northern Ireland bTB programme has also continued to rise. Driven largely by the high market value of cattle slaughtered for bTB disease control, the overall programme cost is now in the region of £70million.

In April 2025, the new stakeholder body, the TB Partnership Steering Group (TBPSG), which is chaired by the Northern Ireland Chief Veterinary Officer, published its Bovine Tuberculosis in Northern Ireland - Blueprint for Eradication. Endorsed by the Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, good progress has been made over the past year in implementing its key priorities.

The amount of supplementary interferon gamma (IFNg) testing being carried out in breakdown herds has increased; a major cross-border regionalisation research pilot has been launched in conjunction with the Republic of Ireland; and information has been shared with farmers about the risk to their herds from cattle that previously had inconclusive skin test results.

A new public consultation on potential wildlife intervention options is due to take place over the summer of 2026.

Work is also continuing with TBPSG to implement other priority recommendations set out in the Blueprint including the procurement of on-farm biosecurity advice; introduction of pre/post movement testing; further work to enable farmers to access more departmental data relating to their herds’ bTB history; revising criteria for the establishment of alternative control herds; and establishing the basis on which IFNg testing would be mandatory.

Note: More information on Bovine Tuberculosis can be found at the TB hub.