§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many of the £6 million of applications refused in 1998 for the Countryside Stewardship scheme were eligible and of high enough environmental value to approve. [HL3054]
§ Lord DonoughueIn the 1998–99 application year, 1,107 applications, out of a total of 2,460, were either rejected or withdrawn. Of the applications which did not receive agreements, 305 failed to meet the objectives of the scheme, 221 were either ineligible or withdrawn by the applicants at draft agreement stage and the remaining 581 were considered to be either low or medium priority in comparison with successful applications.
The total value of rejected or withdrawn applications under the Countryside Stewardship scheme is not available.