§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many people were employed on the Countryside Quality Counts project in each of the years May 2002 to April 2003 and May 2003 to April 2004; how many are employed now; how much the project has cost to date; how much is budgeted for 2004–05; and how long the project is planned to run. [HL1275]
183WA
§ Lord WhittyCountryside Quality Counts (CQC) is a joint project between the Countryside Agency (which leads and provides the majority of the funding), English Nature, English Heritage and Defra.
The total spend and commitment to date is £500,555. The table below shows expenditure by year:
Total spend May 2002–April 2003 £175,862 May 2003–April 2004 £183,693 May 2004–April 2005 (budget) £141,000 May 2005–end of project (budget) £200,000 The project is planned to run until summer 2006 and will end with the publication of the second assessment of the countryside quality indicator.
Staff numbers are not formally recorded on an annual basis. However, the table below shows the number of staff involved and their average input per month during the project:
Organisation Number of persons Days/month The Countryside Agency 2 24 English Nature 1 3 English Heritage 2 5 Defra 2 2 Rural Development Service 1 2 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 1 1 Forestry Commission 1 1 Total 10 38 Total officer time over the 44 months of the project to date is 1,672 days.