To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of set aside is being cultivated for biofuel and biomass crops. (130098)

Of the 360,000 or so hectares English farmers are obliged to set aside, some 76,000 hectares (21 per cent.), have been entered into contracts under the non-food set-aside arrangements for the 2006 Single Payment Scheme. The majority of the hectares concerned would be used for energy purposes, but the precise number could be gathered only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research his Department has commissioned on the effects on biodiversity of biomass and biofuel crops. (130099)

My Department funds an ongoing programme of research on Non Food Crops, which includes assessing the effects of energy crops on biodiversity. In particular, we are funding an extension to the RELU-biomass (Rural Economy and Land Use) project to asses field-scale impacts on biodiversity from New Crops. New research for 2007 is planned to model the landscape scale impacts of biomass crops on biodiversity.

Current evidence indicates that, in comparison with arable crops, energy crops such as short rotation coppice and miscanthus can encourage biodiversity, particularly for birds and insects, although the species composition may differ from those normally found on arable land.