Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farmers are in (a) Entry Level and (b) Higher Level Stewardship agreements in the Countryside Stewardship scheme.

a) There are 40,589 live Environmental Stewardship scheme agreements of which 26,399 are Entry Level Stewardship agreements (including organic and uplands variants).

b) There are 12,572 combined Entry Level Stewardship/Higher Level Stewardship agreements and 1,618 Higher Level Stewardship-only agreements (which do not have an underpinning Entry Level Stewardship agreement).

Countryside Stewardship agreements do not start until 1 January 2016.