§ Mr. Charles KennedyTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the species and habitats included as performance indicators for Welsh ESAs and the specific objectives relating to each; and if he will make a statement concerning progress made by farmers in respect of these species and habitats. [2684]
§ Mr. Win GriffithsThe information requested is in the Welsh Office report: Targets and Performance indicators for ESAs in Wales October 1995. Copies of the report have been placed in the Library of the House. Reports on progress are not yet available.
§ Mr. KennedyTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on his policy towards environmentally sensitive area schemes in Wales; and what is(a) the budget currently available for ESAs, (b) the number of farmers and landowners entered into 491W each ESA scheme, (c) the area of land so entered and (d) the number of project officers employed to promote schemes. [2688]
§ Mr. GriffithsThe Government is committed to an effective agri-environmental schemes for Wales. The ESA programmes are included in a review of agri-environmental schemes, the results of which will be announced later this year. The provision for 1997–98 is £5.89 million. The current number of agreement holders and area under agreement for each ESA is shown in the following table. Countryside and Agricultural Information Service (CAIS) and ESA Project Officers all promote the scheme. I estimate that 2.4 staff years are spent on this activity.
ESA Number of agreement holders Number of hectares under agreement Cambrian Mountains 372 45,690 Lleyn Peninsula 391 18,741 Ynys Mon 342 17,345 Radnor 399 32,329 Preseli 234 12,676 Clwydian Range 64 3,033 Total 1,757 129,814