§ 6. Mr. Hunterasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a specific provision within the arrangements under the dairy quota provisions, in respect of quotas for dairy farms deliberately run down in the reference period so it could be sold free of livestock, to facilitate the resumption of milk production under new ownership; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. JoplingThe rules provide for a quota to he issued provided that milk was actually being sold on 2 April 1984. It would not be appropriate to issue a quota to anybody who had given up production by that date.
§ Mr. HunterI thank my right hon. Friend for that answer to my question, which was tabled before our recent debate. Will he accept the desirability of a speedy reduction in, or removal of, the co-responsibility levy, which is a great burden on the dairy industry? Will my right hon. Friend take on board the NFU's plea for such a reduction?
§ Mr. JoplingMy hon. Friend will recall that the extra 1 per cent. which was put on for this year will be removed at the end of the next milk year—on 1 April 1985. He will be glad to hear that we have consistently argued for the abolition of the co-responsibility levy, which we believe is counter-productive.
§ Mr. BuchanWill the Minister confirm, in relation to the phasing out of cows, that if someone has a dairy herd of 60 he will get £195,000 in compensation? Is it riot disgraceful that such compensation should be paid to a farmer when less than £1,000 is to be given to a 40-year-old stockman who has looked after that herd for the previous 10 years?
§ Mr. JoplingThe hon. Gentleman must not try to use figures in a way that does not demonstrate the facts. I have 451 already explained that a comparison between the statutory redundancy scheme and the outgoers scheme is utterly false. The hon. Gentleman must realise that paying an outgoer with that number of cows will enable a great many small milk producers to be brought back to their 1983 production patterns, which is what we want to do.