Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farmers are in (a) Entry Level and (b) Higher Level Stewardship agreements in the Countryside Stewardship scheme.

George Eustice

a) There are 40,589 live Environmental Stewardship scheme agreements of which 26,399 are Entry Level Stewardship agreements (including organic and uplands variants).

b) There are 12,572 combined Entry Level Stewardship/Higher Level Stewardship agreements and 1,618 Higher Level Stewardship-only agreements (which do not have an underpinning Entry Level Stewardship agreement).

Countryside Stewardship agreements do not start until 1 January 2016.