To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has for the management of permanent, non-rotational and rotational set-aside.

Management conditions for set-aside land will be published as soon as possible after the relevant Commission implementing regulations have been adopted. We intend to keep our requirements as simple and flexible as possible in the first year.

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he intends to have a consultation period for all interested parties prior to fixing the management regimes for the newly announced set-aside schemes.

The management regime cannot be fixed until after the Commission implementing regulations have been adopted. This will leave farmers very little time indeed to make preparations to set land aside this autumn. In the circumstances our first priority must be to publish firm details of the management conditions as soon as possible and I am afraid this will rule out a formal consultation exercise. We do, however, keep in contact with the industry and environmental organisations and will take their views into account when drawing up the management conditions.