HC Deb 04 July 1974 vol 876 cc587-8
13. Mr. Michael Spicer

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has received on the level of State aids given to horticulture in other member countries of the EEC.

Mr. Bishop

We are continually receiving information from the Commission and from our posts abroad.

Mr. Spicer

Will the Minister tell us why on 30th April the Chairman of the Horticulture Committee of Worcestershire NFU received a letter from the Ministry which ended with the remarkable sentence: This information is, however, not maintained in a form suitable for general dissemination"? Surely it is not beyond the skills of the hon. Gentleman's Ministry to provide the information in a form that can be generally distributed. Is the reason that it does not do so that it believes that State aids in other member countries are higher than in ours?

Mr. Bishop

I believe that the chairman had expressed anxiety about the matter and wanted to pursue it in his own way. I believe that it has been pointed out that attaches' offices are not staffed to deal with such inquiries from individuals, and that this was in any case not one of their functions. Although we are reasonably well informed about the assistance given by other member States, and we are making every endeavour to keep abreast of developments, the position is changing all the time. If we were to publish all the aids given to the industry we should cause more difficulties than we have with our printing problems here, because I understand that they would take up the space of two or three telephone directories.