"agreement land" means land which is the subject of an environmental stewardship agreement;

"agreement year" means a period of 12 months commencing with the date of, or the anniversary of the date of, the coming into effect of an environmental stewardship agreement;

"beneficiary" means a person who has entered into an environmental stewardship agreement with the Secretary of State;

"carry out", in relation to an obligation under an environmental stewardship agreement or a feasibility study agreement, includes ensuring that the obligation is carried out;

    (2) An application to enter into an environmental stewardship agreement containing an HLS element must be accompanied by a plan ("a farm environment plan"), in such form as the Secretary of State requires, identifying the features of environmental significance on the relevant land.

    (3) Subject to paragraph (4), in paragraph (2) and Schedule 1 relevant land means land - 

(a) which - 


(i) is farmed by the applicant as a single farming business; or

(ii) would have been farmed as a single farming business but is instead farmed by the applicant as two or more farming businesses in order to comply with the requirement of the second paragraph of Part A of Annex III of the Council Regulation (which provides that production in accordance with organic standards must be clearly separated from production which is not in accordance with such standards);



and which includes the land which is the subject of the application to enter into an environmental stewardship agreement with an HLS element; and

(b) which is registered on the Rural Land Register held by the Rural Payments Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; and

(c) in relation to which the applicant, either - 



(i) alone, or

(ii) with a person who countersigns the application,



has, on the date of the application, the right, for at least five years from that date, to carry out activities of the type required by HLS options.

    (2) An environmental stewardship agreement which contains an ELS element must include an undertaking by the beneficiary to carry out on the conventional land, for the duration of the agreement, sufficient ELS options to obtain an ELS points score equal to or greater than the ELS points target in relation to that land.

    (3) An environmental stewardship agreement which contains an OELS element must include an undertaking by the beneficiary to carry out on the organic land, for the duration of the agreement, sufficient OELS options to obtain an OELS points score equal to or greater than the OELS points target in relation to that land.

    (4) An environmental stewardship agreement which contains an HLS element must include an undertaking by the beneficiary to carry out on the agreement land, for the duration of the agreement, at least one HLS option.

    (5) An environmental stewardship agreement which contains an HLS element must also specify - 

(a) the payment rate for each HLS option included in the agreement;

(b) the payment rate for each HLS capital works item listed in column 1 of Part 4 of Schedule 2 included in the agreement; and

(c) the percentage of the cost payable for each HLS capital works item listed in column 1 of Part 5 of Schedule 2 included in the agreement.

    (6) The payment rate referred to in paragraph (5)(a) must not exceed the maximum payment rate per agreement year specified for that HLS option in column 4 of Part 2, or column 2 of Part 3, of Schedule 2 (as the case may be).

    (7) The payment rate referred to in paragraph (5)(b) must not exceed the maximum payment rate specified for that HLS capital works item in column 2 of Part 4 of Schedule 2.

    (8) The percentage referred to in paragraph (5)(c) must not exceed the maximum percentage of cost specified for that HLS capital works item in column 2 of Part 5 of Schedule 2.

    (9) An environmental stewardship agreement which contains a special project element must - 

(a) include an undertaking by the beneficiary to carry out on the agreement land any activity ("a special project activity") which, in the Secretary of State's opinion, would better, or more fully achieve, the specified purposes than an ELS option, an OELS option, an HLS option or an HLS capital works item (or more than one such option or capital works item);

(b) specify the payment rate or the amount of grant for each special project activity included in such agreement.

    (10) The payment rate or the amount of grant referred to in paragraph (9)(b) must not exceed 120% of the sum of - 

(a) the loss of income suffered, and

(b) the additional costs incurred

    (2) In paragraph (1), eligible land means land which meets the conditions specified in paragraph (3) and is - 

(a) improved land; or

(b) top fruit orchard which - 


(i) has a total area of least 0.5 hectares; and

(ii) is planted with at least 80 top fruit trees per hectare.

    (3) The conditions mentioned in paragraph (2) are that the land must - 

(a) on the date of application, be registered with a private inspection body as being in its first year of conversion to organic production; and

(b) at no time during the period beginning on 10th August 1993 and ending immediately before the date of the agreement, have been registered with a private inspection body as being in conversion to organic production or fully organic (or both).

"beetle bank" means a linear raised earth bank in an arable field, covered in grass vegetation;

"brassica fodder crop" means a brassica crop which is grown to be grazed by livestock or cut for forage;

"buffer strip" means a strip of land adjoining a field boundary or environmental feature which is not cultivated and where the use of inputs is restricted;

"conservation headland" means an area of land within a cereal field which is adjacent to its boundary and in which the use of insecticides and herbicides is restricted;

"cultivated land" means land which is regularly cultivated by ploughing or other means;

"ditch management" means the cleaning of ditches and the management of vegetation on and adjacent to the ditch bank;

"fen" means an area of low-lying marshy ground;

"heathland" means an area of grass, shrubs and trees on acidic sandy soils;

"hedgerow management" means a cycle of cutting and trimming used to control hedgerow growth and "enhanced hedgerow management" means a more restrictive cycle of cutting and trimming;

"improved grassland" means grassland which - 

(a) has been drained, fertilised, re-seeded or otherwise managed to increase its productive capacity; and

(b) receives more than 50 but not more than 100 kilograms per hectare of inorganic nitrogen fertiliser per year;

"in-bye" means enclosed land which is used for the production of grass in an upland area;

"in-field tree" means a tree, the trunk of which is entirely within the field and does not touch the field boundary;

"in-field pond" means a pond which is entirely within the field and does not touch the field boundary;

"inputs" means fertiliser, manures, pesticides and seed;

"intensive grassland" means grassland which receives more than 100 kilograms per hectare of inorganic nitrogen fertiliser per year;

"organic grassland" means grassland which is managed organically and which is not rotational land;

"over-wintered stubbles" means the remains of a cereal, oilseed rape, field bean or linseed crop after harvesting, retained through the winter into the following year;

"permanent grassland" means land which is used to grow grasses or other herbaceous forage naturally or through cultivation and which has not been subject to cultivation for at least five years;

"reedbeds" means an area of marshy ground on which the vegetation consists primarily of reeds;

"rotational land" means land which will successively bear different crops as the rotation progresses including grass and clover in the fertility-building phase of the rotation;

"rough grassland" means permanent grassland on which the vegetation is predominantly natural owing to the difficult terrain or other physical constraints;

"rough grazing" means grazing on rough grassland;

"rush pasture" means damp pasture where at least a third of the vegetation comprises rush species and the remainder comprises mainly grass and other herbaceous species;

"skylark plot" means an unsown, sparsely vegetated area of land in a field sown with cereals;

"successional" means containing a range of habitat structures appropriate to the specific target species;

"whole crop silage" means a crop which is harvested to make silage for feeding to livestock.

(a) in relation to any conventional land situated within the less favoured area which comprises all or part of a parcel with an area of at least 15 hectares ("LFA land"), 8 points per hectare; and

(b) in relation to all other conventional land, 30 points per hectare.

     2. The beneficiary's ELS points score shall be calculated by - 

(a) multiplying the points value per unit in column 2 of Part 2 of Schedule 2 for each ELS option which is included in the environmental stewardship agreement by the number of units for which it is included (giving the points score for each ELS option); and

(b) adding together the points score for each ELS option.

     3. The grant for the ELS element of an environmental stewardship agreement shall be calculated at the following rates - 

(a) in relation to any LFA land, £8 per hectare per agreement year; and

(b) in relation to all other conventional land, £30 per hectare per agreement year.

(a) multiplying the points value per unit in column 3 of Part 2 of Schedule 2 for each OELS option which is included in the environmental stewardship agreement by the number of units for which it is included (giving the points score for each OELS option); and

(b) adding together the points score for each OELS option.

     6. The grant for the OELS element of an environmental stewardship agreement shall be calculated at the rate of £60 per hectare per agreement year in respect of all organic land.

(a) HLS options, calculated in accordance with paragraph (2); and

(b) HLS capital works items, calculated in accordance with paragraph (3).

    (2) In any agreement year the grant for HLS options shall be calculated by - 

(a) multiplying the payment rate referred to in regulation 5(5)(a) for each HLS option included in the environmental stewardship agreement by the number of units for which it is included (giving the payment for each HLS option); and

(b) adding together the payment for each HLS option.

    (3) The grant for HLS capital works items shall be calculated as follows - 

(a) for HLS capital works items listed in column 1 of Part 4 of Schedule 2, by - 


(i) multiplying the payment rate referred to in regulation 5(5)(b) for each such HLS capital works item included in the environmental stewardship agreement by the number of units for which it is included (giving the payment for each such HLS capital works item); and

(ii) adding together the payments for each such HLS capital works item;



(b) for HLS capital works items listed in column 1 of Part 5 of Schedule 2, by - 



(i) multiplying the percentage referred to in regulation 5(5)(c) by the cost for each such HLS capital works item included in the environmental stewardship agreement (giving the payment for each such HLS capital works item); and

(ii) adding together the payment for each such HLS capital works item; and



(c) adding together the payments calculated in accordance with sub-paragraphs (a) and (b).

(a) calculated at the rate specified for it, or

(b) the amount specified for it

in the environmental stewardship agreement.

(a) in respect of established top fruit orchards, £600 per hectare in each of the first three agreement years; and

(b) in respect of improved land, £175 per hectare in each of the first two agreement years.