HC Deb 14 January 2003 vol 397 cc540-1W
Mr. Peter Duncan

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of England's land area has been covered by the Rural Payments Agency through their Rural Land Register project. [90397]

Alun Michael

The Rural Land Register is designed to cover all fields in England which are registered for IACS purposes. Although this does not cover all agricultural land in England, it includes forage land used to support claims for livestock subsidies. I cannot quantify this precisely but coverage is likely to be in the region of 60–90 per cent. of agricultural land.