§ 3. Mr. Gowerasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many applications have been made, in Wales and in the County of Glamorgan, respectively, at the latest convenient date under the Agriculture (Small Farmers) Act; and how long it will take his Department to deal with these applications.
§ Mr. GodberUp to 3rd July, 5,649 applications had been received from farmers in Wales and Monmouthshire under the Small Farmer Scheme and 541 under the supplementary scheme. The corresponding figures for Glamorgan are 357 and 35 respectively.
Two thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight applicants have subsequently submitted farm business plans under the Small Farmer Scheme including 225 in Glamorgan. Of these 1,223 have been approved including 109 in Glamorgan. Unless they present special difficulties the remainder should be cleared within three months.
Three hundred and twenty farms have been registered under the supplementary scheme including five in Glamorgan. 1534 The remainder of applications under the supplementary scheme should be cleared within two weeks.
§ Mr. GowerAs Wales has proportionately a very large number of small farms, can my hon. Friend assure the House that progress in Wales is as satisfactory as elsewhere? Can he also say what proportion of the applications already put in have been rejected or are likely to be?
§ Mr. GodberI would certainly say that Wales got off to a very smart start. The Welsh farmers have come forward very well with applications and I think that they are profiting by their early applications. I can assure my hon. Friend that we are going all we can to keep up to date with the scheme. As to the last part of my hon. Friend's supplementary question, I could not give the figure without studying the matter.