Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to define the stock registration reference period for delinked agricultural payments that will replace basic payment scheme payments for uncapped headage; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
As part of the transition to our new agriculture policy in England we plan to delink Direct Payments from the land. When delinked payments are introduced, they will entirely replace the current Basic Payment Scheme (and greening and young farmer payment) for all farmers. The earliest we will delink is 2022. Once we have delinked payments, recipients will no longer have to farm in order to receive payments during the agricultural transition.
Eligibility for delinked payments will be based on a reference period. This reference period will be a year, or period of years, before we introduce delinking. We will consult farmers and stakeholders on the detail of how delinking will work before deciding when to introduce it.
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the accuracy of the stock numbers listed in the Marking Register of Commoner's Stock in the New Forest; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Defra does not hold this information. Maintaining and verifying stock numbers is a matter for the Verderers of the New Forest.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish proposals on replacing the current scheme for payments to commoners for the number of livestock that they release on to the New Forest.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Payments to commoners for the number of livestock that they release on to the New Forest are currently made through Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) Environmental Stewardship agreements. The main New Forest HLS agreement has been recommended for a one-year extension, as have other expiring New Forest HLS agreements. We would expect further negotiations with New Forest agreement holders (and commoners who release livestock onto the land) to take place. This may result in further extensions in the short term, or lead to negotiating a new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier agreement.
From 2024 we will be introducing a new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. ELM will reward farmers and other land managers for delivering environmental public goods such as clean air, and thriving plants and wildlife. We will determine in more detail what ELM will pay for to support the delivery of these public goods as we develop the scheme. A National Pilot for ELM is due to commence in late 2021 and the scheme is scheduled to roll out in late 2024 across England. Our expectation is that HLS agreements, such as the New Forest’s, will provide an excellent foundation for developing into new agreements under ELM from late 2024.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost to Forestry England has been of tree felling at Slap Bottom in the New Forest from 1 December 2019 to date; and what the projected cost is of the completed works at that location.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The cost of felling work to date has been £740 + VAT, so a total of £888. The estimated cost of completing the work will be £6,200 + VAT. The actual cost will depend on the contractor’s assessment of the time involved to complete the work, modified following recent discussions with Burley Parish Council.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether there are plans to extend the cover of ancient and ornamental woodlands in the New Forest.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Ancient and Ornamental woodlands of the New Forest are generally understood to refer to the unenclosed woods originating in the 18th century or earlier. Collectively these are amongst the finest remnants of comparatively undisturbed ancient deciduous forest in the lowlands of Western Europe. All of the Ancient and Ornamental woodlands are already included in the designated area and given their nature there are no plans to extend the area designated as Ancient and Ornamental woodland.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what consultations were conducted with Burley Parish Council in advance of Forestry England commencing felling at Slap Bottom.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The application for a felling licence was placed on the public register for consultation by Forest Services for a period of 28 days from 25 September 2019; this period was subsequently extended to accommodate the parish council. Officials from Forest Services and Forestry England had a meeting with local residents on 22 October 2019. A further meeting took place on 18 November 2019, which included representatives from Burley Parish Council. At these meetings an explanation of the work proposed was provided and questions answered. Adjustments were made to the proposed felling area as a result. Forestry England officials continued to respond to further emails from Burley Parish Council over the following days and also spoke by telephone.