§ Sir Jim SpicerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will accept further applications from those who have already made a first application under the farm woodland scheme to cover a further three-year period.
§ Mr. CurryInitially, the rules of the farm woodland scheme allowed only one application to be accepted for any one agricultural unit or applicant. Last August, in the light of experience, we changed the rules so that farmers with more than one agricultural unit could make a separate application for each of them.
The rule limiting farmers to one application per agricultural unit remains in force to minimise administrative work and to encourage farmers to formulate a firm three-year planting plan at the outset. However, I am keeping it under review, along with the other rules, in the light of operational experience and the level of uptake under the scheme.
At the end of the initial three-year experimental period in September 1991 all aspects of the scheme will, of course, be reviewed to help establish what arrangements should apply thereafter.
§ Sir Jim SpicerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the hectarage applied for during the first three years of the farm woodland scheme; and how much under the target figure this is.
§ Mr. CurryIn the first 14 months of the farm woodland scheme applications to plant 8,938 hectares of trees throughout the United Kingdom were received. This compares with the target for applications in the first experimental three-year period of 36,000 hectares.