§ Mr. MartlewTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has about(a) the amount of money that each EC member state is expecting to spend on the agri-environment package in each of the next three years and (b) what schemes they intend to introduce; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. CurryIn the United Kingdom we expect to spend £45.5 million in 1993–94, £75.5 million in 1994–95 and £97 million in 1995–96 on environmentally sensitive areas, moorland schemes, the creation and improvement of a range of wildlife habitats over a 20-year period, organic farming, the encouragement of new public access on set-aside land and measures to protect groundwater catchments affected by high nitrate levels. This is in addition to expenditure on such schemes as countryside stewardship.
Other member states are currently preparing their plans and the final contents are as yet unclear. So far, programmes for some parts of some member states have been submitted to the EC Commission but provisional details of only two national programmes have been made available. These are a French programme to encourage maintenance of extensive grazed pasture with forecast expenditure of FF630 million in 1993, FF1,050 million in 544W 1994 and FF1,575 million in 1995, and a Dutch programme to extend their environmentally sensitive areas by 9,000 hectares, for which we do not yet have details of the cost.