The proposed overhaul could affect how farmers are regulated on water quality, environmental permits and land management
The Conservatives have pledged to abolish the Environment Agency and Natural England and transfer their functions into Defra, in a shake-up that could change how farmers are regulated and advised across England.
The proposals are being set out at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on Monday (5 October) as part of a wider drive to cut regulation.
Under the plans, both bodies would be abolished under a future Conservative government, but their existing responsibilities would not disappear.
Instead, their functions would be brought directly into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
For farmers, the changes could affect areas including water-quality enforcement, Farming Rules for Water, environmental permitting, protected sites and Countryside Stewardship advice.
However, the Conservatives have yet to set out in detail how those services would operate within Defra, or whether farmers would face fewer inspections and regulatory requirements in practice.
Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith is expected to present the proposals as part of what the party has described as its most ambitious deregulation drive in a generation.
Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said bringing the agencies' functions into Defra would deliver "common sense for our countryside and the cost".
She linked the proposal to what she described as "rocketing food prices, record numbers of farms closing and nature in decline".
The Environment Agency currently has extensive responsibilities affecting agriculture in England, including water quality, pollution control, environmental permitting and flood-risk management.
It is also responsible for enforcing the Farming Rules for Water, which place requirements on farmers over the management and application of fertilisers and organic manures to reduce agricultural pollution.
Natural England, meanwhile, works directly with farmers and land managers on environmental schemes, protected sites and habitat management.
Its responsibilities include providing specialist advice linked to Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier agreements and Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Both organisations are currently arm's-length public bodies sponsored by Defra.
The Conservatives have previously argued that overlapping responsibilities across government agencies can create unnecessary bureaucracy for farmers and other rural businesses.
Atkins said last year that one farmer had told her the system involving Natural England and the Environment Agency felt as though it was designed to "trip you up, not help you".
But the plans have prompted strong criticism from environmental campaigners, who argue that abolishing the organisations could weaken environmental enforcement.
River Action described the proposal as a "deeply damaging move" for rivers and the wider environment.
Erica Popplewell, the group's head of public affairs, said the Environment Agency was already struggling to investigate pollution incidents because of a lack of resources.
"Scrapping the Environment Agency and Natural England would be a deeply damaging move for the UK's rivers and the wider environment," she said.
Popplewell argued that rivers were already under sustained pressure from sewage pollution and agricultural pollution, while claiming the Environment Agency had been stripped of resources over more than a decade.
"There are many dedicated people within the Environment Agency who want to tackle pollution, but they cannot do the job properly without the resources to do it," she said.
"The answer is not to scrap the regulator. It is to properly fund it, give it the powers and capacity it needs, and enable it to investigate and prosecute those responsible for polluting our rivers."
She added: "If politicians are serious about improving the health of our rivers, they should be strengthening environmental regulation, not dismantling it."
The Conservative proposal would amount to a significant restructuring of environmental governance in England rather than simply removing the rules currently administered by the two organisations.
That distinction will be important for agriculture, as transferring responsibilities into Defra would not in itself mean that existing environmental legislation or farming requirements had been abolished.
Questions therefore remain over whether inspections and enforcement would change, how specialist staff would be transferred and how farmers would access environmental advice under the new structure.
Natural England also plays an increasingly important role in supporting farmers entering environmental land-management agreements, while the Environment Agency's remit stretches beyond farm regulation to flooding, water resources, waste, fisheries and pollution incidents.
The proposals form part of a broader Conservative programme to reduce regulation and change planning and environmental requirements if the party returns to government.
For farmers, much will depend on whether transferring the functions into Defra actually reduces regulatory complexity, or primarily changes which part of government administers existing rules.