§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate Sir Don Curry made of the funding necessary to implement his Food and Farming Report; what funding she is making available for it; by what mechanism those funds are to be allocated among rural areas; how much will be paid to each region; how much will be used in urban areas; and if she will make a statement. [182561]
§ Alun MichaelSir Don Curry estimated that implementation of that; recommendations in the report of the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food would cost in the region of an extra £500 million over the following three years.
The Government's Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food (SSFF), which builds on the work of the Curry Commission, was launched in December 2002. As part of the 2002 Spending Review, the Government announced a sum of £500 million to implement the strategy. This is in addition to existing spending by Defra and other Government Departments which is already being used to deliver aspects of the strategy.
The additional funding provided covers a number of major aspects of the strategy. These include the new Environmental Stewardship Scheme (Entry Level and Higher Level) and the IT system to underpin all the England Rural Develop Programme (ERDP) schemes; improvements in livestock traceability and other major animal health and welfare measures; and new food chain initiatives such as the Food Chain Centre and English Farming and Food Partnerships.
Regional delivery of the strategy will be facilitated by many public body and industry representatives and these organisations will work together with both resource and funding support to deliver the vision set out in the strategy. They are making use of Government grants, industry support and the resources of Government Offices and Regional Development Agencies, as well as other Government bodies participating in regional steering groups. Existing support programmes. including the ERDP have been targeted to deliver SSFF regional action plans. Hitherto, land-based scheme budgets have not been managed on a regional basis, but they will be in future when the new ERDP IT system is rolled-out next year. Budgets for the three ERDP project-based schemes are managed on a regional basis, and the following table summarises expenditure on these schemes in 2003–04:
243WGiven the number of public and industry bodies contributing to regional delivery it is not possible to quantify precisely the level of support available to fund regional delivery. Implementation of SSFF is one of the core tasks of the Government Offices and Regional Development Agencies, and their funding from Defra reflects this. Funding for the Government Offices is provided directly by Defra. The current Defra contribution to the RDA 'single pot', administered by DTI, is to enable RDAs to address rural productivity issues, which are a key factor in achieving the outcomes of the national Sustainable Food and Farming Strategy. In addition, Defra is making a further £1.5 million available to the RDAs in the current financial year to assist with the implementation of regional delivery plans. New tasking arrangements for RDAs, which will take effect from April 2005, will include specific reference to contributing to delivering a customer-focused, competitive and sustainable farming and food industry.
It is not possible to differentiate precisely between funds that will be spent in rural areas and funds that will be spent in urban areas, but it is clear that the vast bulk will be spent in rural areas.