Oliver Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Wycombe, of 28 June 2011, Official Report, column 636W, on the common agricultural policy, what plans she has to ensure that the condition of chalk streams is taking into account in responding to climate change challenges as part of her Department's negotiations on future common agricultural policy expenditure. [64718]
Mr Paice: The Government are already working to make the existing Environmental Stewardship provisions within Axis 2 of the Rural Development Programme for England more effective through the ongoing ‘Making Environmental Stewardship More Effective’ project.Negotiations on CAP reform will start later this year. Future CAP expenditure should tackle the key objectives of encouraging a competitive, sustainable EU agriculture sector able to respond to climate change challenges, reducing reliance on subsidies and focusing resources on the provision of environmental public goods. Chalk streams are valued for their unique biological and environmental characters, and many are already designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest or have other protections.
Improving or preserving the condition of chalk streams is already taken into account in national policy through the establishment of river basin management plans which are required under the water framework directive. This allows regional panels, which include local stakeholders, to work together to design suitable management plans for water bodies in their area.
Recommendation 4 of the Government's response to the Lawton review ‘Making Space for Nature’, published in June, outlines measures to protect and improve the water environment:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb13537-lawton-response-110607.pdf
Under the water framework directive the UK is required to aim to achieve good chemical and ecological status in all inland and coastal waters by 2015.