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8 Jun 2006 : Column 803W—continued
Single Farm Payments
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farms in Bridgwater constituency are entitled to single farm payments; and what total amount had been paid in single farm payments to farmers in that constituency at 1 May 2006. [68954]
Barry Gardiner: 120,367 applications were received for the single payment scheme (SPS). By the end of Tuesday 30 May 95,674 claims (79 per cent.) had been paid.
Analysis of these applications by constituency is not available but the total amount of payments for the single farm payment scheme in the Bridgwater constituency at 1 May 2006 was £2.938 million.
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the delays within the Single Payment Scheme on the ability of the Rural Payments Agency to deliver each of its other programmes. [66704]
Barry Gardiner: The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has kept Ministers and officials informed of the impact of administering the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) on all of the Agency’s programmes. Given the importance of the SPS to the farming community RPA has, with ministerial agreement, sought to focus as many staff as it can on that scheme. This has meant that less effort has been deployed on some other activities at particular points over the past year and has resulted in a reduction in previous performance levels on other schemes. The Agency has kept representative organisations informed of its approach to SPS and other activities.
Water Leakage
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will ensure that the method of calculating acceptable levels of leakage by water companies takes account of the effects of leaks on (a) the environment and (b) consumers. [72853]
Ian Pearson: Leakage targets are set by the Economic Regulator, Ofwat and will be kept under review. They require water companies to compare the cost of reducing leakage and the value of the water saved, including any associated environmental and social costs and benefits. Leakage targets are set to balance the needs of consumers, against the environmental benefits associated with reduced leakage.
Woodland Grant Scheme
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many applications from the (a) private, (b) not-for-profit and (c) public sectors have been accepted under the woodland creation section of the England Woodland Grant Scheme in the last bidding round in each region; and what the (i) value of and (ii) area covered by each bid is. [74099]
Barry Gardiner: The Forestry Commission’s English Woodland Grant Scheme was open for woodland creation grant applications between 18 July 2005 and 30 September 2005. In this period 596 applications were made and 448 met or exceeded the published scoring threshold and were accepted for processing. Of these 326 have resulted in signed grant scheme contracts. The remaining 122 were either withdrawn by the applicant or have outstanding technical or administrative issues to be resolved, including in some cases a final decision from the applicant as to whether they wish to proceed.
The information on the accepted (i.e. met or exceeded the published scoring threshold) and approved applications by ownership type for each region and is given in the following tables.
| Private Owners (Personal and Business Occupiers) | ||||||
| Accepted for processing | Grant Scheme contract signed | |||||
| Region | Area (ha) | Number | Value (£000) | Area (ha) | Number | Value (£000) |
| Not for Profit (Voluntary Organisation) | ||||||
| Accepted for processing | Grant Scheme contract signed | |||||
| Region | Area (ha) | Number | Value (£000) | Area (ha) | Number | Value (£000) |
| Public Sector (Government Department, Crown Estates, National Forest Company, Local Authority etc.) | ||||||
| Accepted for processing | Grant Scheme contract signed | |||||
| Region | Area (ha) | Number | Value (£000) | Area (ha) | Number | Value (£000) |
| Note: The Ownership type declared by the applicant is either: (a) Personal Occupier (b) Business Occupier (c) Voluntary Organisation (d) Government Department, Crown Estates, National Forest Company (e) Other Public e.g. Local Authority | ||||||
These have been grouped into three categories in the tables.
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