§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations have been made to her Department regarding rural lapwing population decline; and what measures her Department is taking to address this decline. [69630]
§ Mr. MeacherThe Department has sponsored extensive research over a number of years with the British Trust for Ornithology, the RSPB, and other organisations to try to identify the causes of the decline in lapwing and other farmland birds. The Department works closely with these organisations on formulating remedial measures. The Department is already diverting money from agricultural subsidies in the UK to double the size of our agri-environment scheme over the seven years of the England Rural Development Programme. The schemes include valuable incentives to encourage farmland birds such as the lapwing.