§ 28. Captain Duncanasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the estimated total cost of the support to agriculture for 1957– 58, to compare with the figure of £ 245 million referred to in paragraph 13 of Command Paper No. 109.
Mr. AmoryThe provision which has been made in the Civil Estimates for 1957–58 just published—Class VIII Votes 2 and 12—for the support of agriculture was based on expectations at the time when the Estimates were prepared early this year, and amounts to £ 238. 3 million. Apart from the unpredictable effects of other factors, such as the level of market prices, the changes in the guarantees following the recent Annual Review for which provision had not been made would be likely to increase the cost by about £ 10 million during the financial year.
§ Captain DuncanI thank my right hon. Friend for those figures, but does he realise how difficult it is to get figures from the Estimates? We are given the figure of £ 245 million in the Annual Review White Paper, but it is almost impossible to dig it out of the Estimates, because it is in the English, Scottish and Northern Irish figures.