§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment. Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of farms taking part in the countryside stewardship scheme staff from the(a) Rural Payments Agency and (b) Rural Development Service visit after the first year of taking part in the scheme; and how regularly individual farms have been visited by the agency. [55295]
§ Mr. MorleyStaff from the Rural Payments Agency carry out compliance monitoring inspections of countryside stewardship scheme agreements in accordance with EU and our own audit requirements. EU rules require at least 5 per cent. of agreements to be inspected each year. The agreements to he visited are selected using risk-based criteria, which are not specifically related to the year of the agreement.
The programme of care and maintenance visits operated by technical staff from DEFRA's Rural Development Service currently aims to cover around 20 per cent. of 654W agreements each year, including the visits scheduled for the first year of an agreement. More frequent visits may take place as circumstances require.