Written question asked by Lord Bruce of Bennachie (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 8 May 2002, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 16 May 2002. It was answered by Elliot Morley (Labour) on Thursday, 16 May 2002 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, pursuant to her Answer of 18th April, Official Report, 383 c1071, on the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, on what basis decisions are made to visit farms after the first year of the scheme; and what monitoring systems are in place to check whether a visit in the second year is necessary.

Answer: Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 18 April 2002, Official Report, column 1071, on the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, on what basis decisions are made to visit farms after the first year of the scheme; and what monitoring systems are in place to check whether a visit in the second year is necessary. [55338] Mr. Morley: The compliance monitoring inspections of Countryside Stewardship Scheme agreements carried out by the Rural Payments Agency are selected using risk based criteria and are not specifically related to the year of the agreement. Inspections may therefore take place in any of the ten years of an agreement: the need for any follow-up inspections will be assessed in the light of the initial inspection. Under the risk based strategy for selecting care and maintenance visits, technical staff from DEFRA's Rural Development Service aim to visit all agreements in their first year. Visits in subsequent years may additionally be carried out following a compliance monitoring inspection, a request for a major amendment to an agreement or at the request of an agreement holder.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 55338; 385 c823W
Session: 2001-02
Subjects: Inspections Environment protection Farms Monitoring Subsidies Countryside stewardship scheme
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk