§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the Public Service Agreement targets which have been revised and those which have been introduced since the publication of the 2001 departmental report. [43262]
§ Mr. MorleyWhen the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was created in June 2001 an interim Public Service Agreement with a total of 14 targets was drawn up. These 14 targets comprised all eight of the MAFF PSA targets together with six targets covering environmental issues from the DETR PSA. The DEFRA interim PSA will remain extant until the end of this spending period.
The interim PSA targets are listed on our website at www.defra.gov.uk/corporateibusplan/Olpsa.htm.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the Public Service Agreement target to reverse the long-term decline in populations of farmland birds by 2020. [43117]
§ Mr. MorleyThis Department has a number of existing policy measures which will help to achieve the PSA target, not least the continuing expansion of our agri-environment schemes under the England Rural Development Programme. We are hopeful that this year's national rollout of arable Countryside Stewardship options, based on a successful pilot scheme, will prove particularly beneficial for farmland birds. An assessment carried out last year of the underlying trend showed that the decline was slowing down and we are expecting an updated assessment shortly. However, the reasons for the decline in farmland bird numbers are complex and we126W have commissioned research from the British Trust for Ornithology, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Oxford University to help us identify more precisely what needs to be done to ensure delivery of the PSA target.