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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will break down by programme the budget set by her Department for public expenditure on land management and rural development, including the Entry Level Scheme, other England rural development programme schemes and other schemes for financial years (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06. [196652] Alun Michael: The budget profile and breakdown for the England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) in 2004-05 are shown in the following table. This is the full resource-based budget and relates specifically to the anticipated value of payments to be made to beneficiaries. The agri-environment schemes are the Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS), the Environmentally Sensitive Areas scheme (ESA) and the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS). The Entry Level Stewardship budget of £2.0 million shown below relates to the ongoing pilot agreements only. Defra has not yet concluded its formal business planning process for the 2005-06 financial year. Figures will be provided as soon as that process is complete. Subject to European Commission approval, a new agri-environment scheme called Environmental Stewardship (ES) will be launched in England in 2005 to replace the three existing schemes (CSS, ESA, OFS). Environmental Stewardship will consist of three separate elements: Entry Level Stewardship (ELS), Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS) and Higher Level Stewardship (HLS). Agri-environment schemes are budgeted a year in arrears, which means that the expenditure reflects agreements signed in the previous year. Current planning assumptions about the expected rate of uptake to the Entry Level element of Environmental Stewardship suggest that by 2006-07 expenditure will be in the region of £132 million and will rise further thereafter. In addition to the England Rural Development Programme budgets shown, Rural Development funding of £21.2 million in 2004-05 and £19.3 million in 2005-06 is also available under the Objective 1 Programme. This funding stream is directed to beneficiaries in the three, geographically defined Objective 1 areas in England: Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Merseyside and South Yorkshire. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. ERDP 2004-05 Total (£ million) Agri-environment schemes (ESA, CSS, OFS) 155.8 Entry Level Stewardship Pilot 2.0 Hill Farm Allowance 27.2 Rural Enterprise Scheme 30.0 Vocational Training Scheme 4.0 Processing and Marketing Grant 8.0 Energy Crops Scheme 1.4 Farm Woodland Premium Scheme 11.8 Woodland Grant Scheme 22.0 Total ERDP 262.2 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

196652; 426 c820-1W;426 c824-5W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Land Expenditure Grants Management Rural areas Rural development programme Environmental stewardship scheme

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk