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Environmental Liability Directive

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the steps necessary to comply with the EU Environmental Liability Directive. [174765]

Alun Michael: The directive is required to be implemented by May 2007. It will be necessary to transpose its requirements into UK law, and appropriate administrative and enforcement measures put in place. As part of this process, the Department will consult with stakeholders to assist identification of the critical issues and to ensure that they have an opportunity to influence decisions that will affect them.

Farming

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the farm income levels for farmers in Cambridgeshire in the last five years. [170854]

Alun Michael: Net farm income for farms in Cambridgeshire, the EU East Region and for England over the last five years are show in the table below.

The fall in incomes for 2002/03 in Cambridgeshire is a reflection of the high proportion of output accounted for by the potato crop on farms in that county compared to the East region in general. In 2002/03 the price of potatoes was low.
Net Farm Income

	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
Cambridgeshire	29,964	17,207	24,827	25,758	13,794
EU East Region	13,190	9,604	11,367	11,997	16,894
England	10,359	7,981	9,886	13,558	16,435

Source:
Farm Business Survey

Net farm income is the return to the principal farmer and spouse for their manual and managerial labour and to the tenant-type capital of the business.

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research she has commissioned to examine alternatives to the use of plastic sheeting used to cover fields and crops in farm production. [174469]

Alun Michael: A DEFRA-funded research project is under way to examine the feasibility of using innovative types of physical barriers to assist in crop protection against insect pests. If successful this research will allow for a reduction in the use of plastic mulches and sheeting in vegetable crop production.

An exercise has also been recently commissioned to look at types of polythene crop covers and mulches used in horticultural production. This will examine the scope for re-use or replacement with sustainable alternatives such as paper, starch or cellulose, which offer easier routes for disposal.

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much was given in farm subsidies to each region of the United Kingdom in each of the last 10 years. [166677]

Alun Michael: The figures given below are based on the European Agriculture Guidance & Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) financial years, i.e. 16 October to 15 October. Earlier figures are not available.
£

Region	EAGGF 2000	EAGGF 2001	EAGGF 2002	EAGGF 2003
North East	40,050,129.43	37,370,886.64	35,483,680.86	64,980,655.45
North West	92,344,812.66	87,942,065.88	82,485,021.47	64,408,879.73
Yorkshire and Humberside	141,359,755.7 0	132,426,384.6 8	121,302,982.7 4	156,415,335.2 3
East Midlands	76,726,571.39	73,270,305.99	70,939,947.40	201,269,620.0 3
West Midlands	144,171,286.3 5	136,276,269.0 4	126,245,295.9 3	118,328,138.8 0
East of England	295,741,837.7 7	322,832,075.2 6	156,649,435.5 5	247,015,083.5 7
London	3,576,189.62	3,475,194.34	2,045,673.95	2,933,818.91
South East	117,465,773.7 4	110,603,194.3 4	98,589,082.77	163,282,273.0 2
South West	466,686,008.3 2	447,496,249.9 4	127,052,633.5 1	204,787,183.3 1

 
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North East

The increased expenditure in EAGGF year 2003 was mainly due to the Cereals, Suckler Cow and Beef Special Premium schemes.

North West

The downturn of expenditure in EAGGF year 2003 relates to the Cereals and Set Aside food schemes.

Yorkshire and The Humber

The upturn in costs for EAGGF year 2003 was mainly in Cereals.

East Midlands

The sizeable increase in EAGGF year 2003 occurred in the Cereals, Oilseeds, Proteins, Set Aside Food and Slaughter Premium schemes.

East of England

For EAGGF year 2003 the increase is in the Cereals scheme.

South East

The increased expenditure in EAGGF year 2003 is in the Cereals, Oilseeds, Proteins and Set Aside Food schemes.

South West

In the EAGGF year 2002 the decrease in expenditure was mainly in Cereals, Oilseeds, Proteins, Set Aside Food, Suckler Cow and Beef Special Premium schemes.

In the EAGGF year 2003 there are increases in Cereals, Set Aside Food,

Suckler Cow, Beef Special Premium and Slaughter Premium schemes.

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the rate of take-up of training of farmers at entry level under the modulation scheme. [173877]

Alun Michael: The pilot Entry Level Scheme is an agri-environment scheme that provides payment for good land management. The scheme is being piloted in four areas in England and has proved popular with farmers with a total of 271 agreements that started in August 2003. The Government has announced its intention to roll out the Entry Level Environmental Stewardship Scheme across England, as part of the England Rural Development Programme, using funding generated through modulation.

There is a separate Vocational Training Scheme, which is also part of the England Rural Development Programme. Under current ED rules, it does not involve modulation funding. Under that scheme, DEFRA has funded over 12,500 farmers to undertake training courses, involving over 30,000 training days, up to 31 March 2004. For the whole of the period of the programme (to the end of 2006), DEFRA has so far committed funding to over 7,500 courses, covering 73,000 training days, for participants in the farming and forestry sectors.

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what initial consideration the Government are giving to agricultural support and subsidies for farmers beyond 2012; and if she will make a statement. [174081]

 
25 May 2004 : Column 1492W
 

Alun Michael: The UK played a pivotal role in securing agreement to major reforms to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy over the past year, which will help farmers focus their production on market demand, reduce environmental damage and reduce the damaging impact of EU subsidies on developing countries.

Over the longer term we want to see this progress towards a sustainable subsidy system completed in line with the objectives set out in our Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy. That means addressing remaining barriers to a market driven industry, such as those that still exist in the dairy sector, seeing a greater proportion of expenditure directed towards environmental and rural development measures, which provide real public benefits, and, at an international level, reducing further the damaging impact of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies, through the World Trade Organisation's Doha Development Agenda.

We also want to see CAP expenditure contained within limits that are consistent with our objectives for controlled EU expenditure as a whole.

David Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farms in Cumbria will be classified as being in a severely disadvantaged area when the single farm payment is introduced. [169076]

Alun Michael: It is not possible to give a precise answer at the present time as entitlements to subsidy under the new single payment scheme will be allocated on the basis of claims made by farmers in 2005. However based on Integrated Administration and Control System scheme applications in 2003, the latest information currently available, 40 per cent. of holdings registered for IACS in Cumbria, 1,705 out of 4,235 farmers, have the majority of their land within the severely disadvantaged area.

David Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what she estimates the difference in average payment in Cumbria would be if the lower rate of subsidy for land currently classed as a severely disadvantaged area (SDA) were applied only to those farms currently in the hill farm allowance scheme instead of the whole SDA. [169094]

Alun Michael: It is not possible to give definitive answers at the present time as entitlements under the new single payment scheme will be allocated on the basis of claims made by farmers in 2005. However from previous claim data, the majority of land claimed in the severely disadvantaged area in Cumbria, also receive hill farm allowance payment.

David Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of livestock in Cumbria will be classed as being in a severely disadvantaged area from 2005. [169100]

Alun Michael: The proportion of livestock in a severely disadvantaged area in Cumbria in 2005 will depend upon decisions made by farmers in that year. For single payment scheme purposes, the Department will not seek to class animals as being in a particular area in 2005 as that is not relevant to the number or value of entitlements that farmers are allocated. It will be
 
25 May 2004 : Column 1493W
 
necessary to determine the value of payments made to farmers under existing CAP livestock schemes in the 2000–02 reference period. But, the allocation of this 'historical' element to entitlements held by farmers in one region or another will not affect the total value of subsidy that those farmers receive.

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