Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the level of complexity of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme; if she will take steps to simplify that scheme; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice

Countryside Stewardship has introduced significant rationalisation with regard to its predecessors; integrating three legacy schemes into one. At the same time the number of environmental management options available has been reduced by 70% and the number of capital items by 20%.

Most of the elements in Countryside Stewardship (higher tier; woodland and water capital grants) remain largely analogous to their predecessor schemes. However, the application process has been inevitably more complex than intended given the need for a paper based application system this year.

The stricter EU control rules have resulted in greater reliance on record keeping and other documentary evidence to demonstrate compliance but we have already published guidance on the controls applicable to the scheme in order to clarify the requirements.

We will evaluate this first year of the scheme and simplify it wherever possible.