Written question asked by Ann Winterton (Conservative) on Thursday, 1 November 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 9 November 2001. It was answered by Elliot Morley (Labour) on Friday, 9 November 2001 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to increase the area of farmed land subject to countryside stewardship schemes. - Includes figures.

Answer: Mrs. Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to increase the area of farmed land subject to Countryside Stewardship schemes. [12810] Mr. Morley: Our plans for a major expansion of the Countryside Stewardship budget are well known. As part of the England Rural Development Programme (ERDP), expenditure on agri-environment schemes is scheduled to increase from £119 million this year to £197 million in 2006-07. From the total ERDP budget of £1.6 billion, £500 million has been allocated to the Countryside Stewardship Scheme over the period. As a result, each year we will be accepting roughly double the number of applications compared to 1999 and we expect to add over half a million hectares of land to that already covered by the scheme (currently about a quarter of a million hectares) over the last 10 years.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 374 c448W; 12810
Session: 2001-02
Subjects: Applications Agriculture Finance Land Countryside stewardship scheme Agri-environment action plan Rural development programme
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk