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Environmental Standards for Farming - Consultation on proposed changes to standards in cross compliance Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) and related measures in England

Dear Consultee

1. I am writing to set out a range of proposals and to invite views on proposed changes to cross compliance following the conclusion of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP Health Check). These proposals relate to cross compliance standards and related measures in England, including recapturing the environmental benefits of set-aside.

2. The following documents may be found on Defra’s website:

3. We welcome your views and comments on the options.

Responses

4. Please send responses, ideally in electronic form, to: gaec.consultation@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Please use the Proforma for responses (Word format 278 KB).

Or by post to:

Sustainable Farm Management Team, Defra
Area 5C, 9 Millbank,
c/o 17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR

5. Responses must be received by 27 May 2009. We will not accept responses by telephone.

Consultation Criteria

6. This consultation follows the Code of practice on Consultations which can be found at: www.berr.gov.uk/bre

7. At the conclusion of the consultation we intend to put copies of all the consultation responses in the Defra library so that they arepublicly available. Members of the public may ask to see the responses under freedom of information legislation.
To see consultation responses and the summary of responses, please contact the library at:

Defra Information Resource Centre
Lower Ground Floor, Ergon House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR
Telephone: 0207 238 6575
Email: defra.library@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Please give the library 24 hours’ notice. There is a charge for photocopying and postage.

8. If you do not want your response - including your name, contact details and any other personal information – to be publicly available, please say so clearly in writing when you send your response to the consultation. Please note, if your email automatically includes a confidentiality disclaimer, it will not count as a confidentiality request.

9. Please explain why you need to keep details confidential. We will take your reasons into account if someone asks for this information under freedom of information legislation. But, because of the law, we cannot promise that we will always be able to keep those details confidential.

10. We will summarise all responses and place this summary on our website at: . This summary will include a list of names of organisations that responded but not personal names, addresses or other contact details.

11. If you have any comments or complaints about the consultation process, please address them to: Marjorie Addo, Defra’s Consultation Co-ordinator, Area 7C Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, or email: consultation.coordinator@defra.gsi.gov.uk.

12. Thank you for your help in this matter. If you have any queries please contact us as above.

Yours sincerely
Richard Findon
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

 

Page published: 4 March 2009