# The Environmental Stewardship (England) Regulations 2005, Regulation 5: Conditions of environmental stewardship agreements


(1) An environmental stewardship agreement must contain one (and may contain more than one) of the following elements—
(a) an ELS element;
(b) an OELS element;
(c) an HLS element;
(d) a special project element.
(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
as a result of carrying out such activity.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/621/regulation/5 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/environmental-stewardship-england-regulations-2005/regulation-5
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.