HC Deb 19 June 1939 vol 348 cc1975-9

Resolution reported: That, for the purposes of any Act of the present Session to make provision, amongst other matters, for securing farmers against low prices for oats, barley and fat sheep, and for securing a market for barley, for promoting the ploughing up of grassland and rendering it fit for arable crops, for the establishment of a reserve of agricultural machinery, and for increasing the resources of any company formed for such purposes as are mentioned in the Agricultural Credits Act, 1928, it is expedient—

A. To authorize the payment out of moneys provided by Parliament of:—

1.A subsidy in respect of land which is under oats, or under a mixed crop comprising oats or barley, in the year nineteen hundred and thirty-nine or in any subsequent year, subject to the following conditions —

  1. (a) there shall be a higher rate and a lower rate of subsidy, and the higher rate shall not apply to land in a farm which during the first eight months of the year comprised any land under wheat unless the farm is excluded from the benefit of deficiency payments under the Wheat Act, 1932.
  2. (b) the higher rate for any year shall be a rate per acre equal to fourteen times the difference between the average price per hundredweight for that year for home grown oats and eight shillings (or such other amount as may be substituted for that amount by an order duly approved) or the rate of two pounds six shillings and eightpence per acre, whichever is the less, and the lower rate for any year shall be a rate ascertained in like manner, but with the substitution of six times for fourteen times the said difference and of one pound for two pounds six shillings and eightpence; and
  3. (c)the total amount which may be paid by way of subsidy for any year shall not exceed the amount which might have been so paid if the acreage of land qualifying for subsidy for that year had not exceeded two million five hundred thousand acres.

2. Any increase in the sums payable out of moneys provided by Parliament under Part II of the Agriculture Act, 1937, attributable to any provisions of the said Act of the present Session fixing at thirty one shillings and sixpence per acre the rate of a subsidy for the year nineteen hundred and thirty-eight the payment of which is authorised by the said Part II, or extending the time for making elections or applications under the said Part II, or authorising the payment under the said Part II of a subsidy for that year at the rate of thirteen shillings and sixpence per acre in respect of land excluded from subsidy under the said Part II by Section seven of the Agriculture Act, 1937.

3. In respect of the year beginning on the first day of August nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, or of any subsequent year, being a year in the case of which provision is made under the said Act of the present Session for the payment of contributions into a fund established for the purpose of the making of subsidy payments in respect of land under barley, payments into the said fund for each hundredweight of any excess of nine-tenths of the amount of home-grown barley harvested in that year over the amount of home-grown barley by reference to which the amount of the contributions to be paid into the said fund is under the said Act to be determined, subject to the following conditions—

  1. (a) the rate of any such payment shall not exceed the difference between the average price per hundredweight for that year for home-grown barley used, or to be used, for feeding livestock and eight shillings per hundredweight (or such 1977 other amount as may be substituted for that amount by an order duly approved); and
  2. (b) the total amount of such payments for any year shall not exceed the amount which might have been the amount thereof if nine-tenths of the amount of home-grown barley harvested in that year had not exceeded eighteen million hundredweights:

Provided that, in the case of the year beginning on the first day of August nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, the said conditions shall not apply, but the amount of the said payments shall be such as may be determined under the said Act with the approval of the Treasury.

4. A subsidy, in respect of land which is under barley in the month of June immediately preceding the year beginning on the first day of August nineteen hundred and forty or any subsequent year, being a year in the case of which provision is made under the said Act of the present Session for minimum prices for home-grown barley, and in the case of which the average price per hundredweight for home-grown barley used or to be used for feeding livestock is less than eight shillings per hundred weight (or such other amount as may be substituted for that amount by an order duly approved), subject to the following conditions,—

  1. (a) the rate of subsidy for any year shall not exceed two pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence per acre;
  2. (b)the total amount which may be paid by way of subsidy for any year shall not exceed the amount which might have been so paid if nine-tenths of the amount of home-grown barley harvested in that year had not exceeded eighteen million hundred weights;
  3. (c)the area of any land in respect of which subsidy may be paid shall be subject to reduction as may be provided by or under the said Act where it includes land on which there was growing in the said month barley in respect of which the pro vision aforesaid as to minimum prices has effect by virtue of the said Act.

5. Any expenses incurred by any Barley Advisory Committee constituted under the said Act of the present Session.

6. A subsidy in respect of fat sheep sold or slaughtered in the year beginning on the first day of August nineteen hundred and thirty-nine or in any subsequent year, subject to the following conditions:

  1. (a) the amount of subsidy in respect of any sheep shall be an amount, for each pound of the standard weight (as determined under the said Act of the present Session with the approval of the Treasury) of sheep of the description to which that sheep belongs, equal to the amount (if any) by which the average price of sheep per pound for the month in which the sheep is examined under provisions in that behalf of the said Act is less than the standard price for that month;
    2. 1978
  2. (b) the standard prices for the several months in any year shall be determined, as may be provided by the said Act, in such manner as to render the average thereof equal to the standard price for that year; and
  3. (c) the standard price for any year shall be tenpence per pound, but shall be related to a United Kingdom sheep population of twenty-seven millions, and shall be subject to reduction by one-eighth of a penny for each complete quarter of a million by which such population exceeds twenty-seven millions and by a further one-eighth of a penny for each complete quarter of a million by which it exceeds twenty-eight millions, and the said figure of twenty-seven millions shall be subject to reduction, to such extent as may be provided by the said Act, for the purpose of ascertaining the standard price for years following on biennial periods in which the standard price has been in excess of the average price:

Provided that the terms of this condition shall be subject to variation by an Order duly approved.

7. Such of the expenses of the examination of sheep for the purposes of the said Act of the present Session as may be thereby directed to be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament, any expenses incurred by the Livestock Commission in connection with the execution of the said Act, and any increase attributable to the execution of the said Act in the sums pay able out of moneys provided by Parliament by virtue of Sub-section (3) of Section one of the Livestock Industry Act, 1937.

8. Grants in respect of the ploughing up, in the year nineteen hundred and thirty- nine, of land then under grass and the bringing of the land into a state of cleanliness and fertility, subject to the condition that the rate of such a grant shall not exceed one pound for a half acre.

9. Any expenses incurred by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries in connection with the acquisition and storage of stocks of agricultural tractors and other agricultural machinery or in doing anything appearing to him necessary for the storage, preservation, and transport of such stocks.

10. Payments, in the year beginning on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and in each or any of the nine teen next succeeding years, to the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, being payments by way of grant or by way of loan not exceeding in any year sixty thousand pounds.

11. Any expenses incurred for the purposes of the said Act of the present Session by a Secretary of State, the Minister of Agriculture and fisheries, or the Department of Agriculture for Scotland.

B. To authorise the payment into the Exchequer of—

1. Any sums retained out of the proceeds of any sale of sheep forfeited under any provision in that behalf made by or under the said Act.

2. Any sums representing the proceeds of any disposal of stocks of agricultural tractors or other agricultural machinery acquired under the said Act.

In this Resolution the expression 'order duly approved ' means an order made with the approval of the Treasury and approved by a Resolution passed by each House of Parliament, and references to an average price, to an acreage of land qualifying for subsidy, to an amount of barley harvested, and to the United Kingdom sheep population, shall be construed as references to that price, acreage or amount, or to that population, as the case may be, as ascertained in accordance with any provisions in that behalf of the said Act of the present Session."

Resolution agreed to.