BARLEY SCHEME, 1939. (Hansard, 3 August 1939)

THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (THE EARL OF FEVERSHAM)

My Lords, you will recall that the Agricultural Development Act contained a provision for the preparation of a temporary subsidy scheme for barley to operate for this year's crop, for the 1939 crop only. The scheme has been circulated to your Lordships in a White Paper issued last week. The scheme is of the levy-subsidy type, and as I devoted some little time in my Second Reading speech to a general explanation of the detail and machinery of the scheme, I do not think I need detain the House by going into details at the present stage. The essence of the scheme is that contributions are paid into a Subsidy Fund by brewers, by importers of beer and by manufacturers of pot-still whisky. These contributions are supplemented by an Exchequer contribution of a sufficient amount to provide for an acreage subsidy of the amount stated in the scheme to be paid to growers of barley in the United Kingdom.

797 Brewers and importers of beer will contribute to the Fund a levy varying from 1d. to 1s. a standard barrel of beer, according as the average market price of all kinds of home-grown barley in England and Wales varies between 9s. 11d. and 8s. 1d. per cwt. The levy on manufacturers of pot-still whisky will vary from 1d. to 4d. per proof gallon. There are a number of other users of barley for malting purposes, but the quantities used are relatively small, and there are a number of complications in devising machinery to include this type of manufacturer; therefore it has not been possible to include them within this purely temporary scheme. But I wish to make it quite clear that the omission of this type of manufacturer is entirely without prejudice to its inclusion within the long-term scheme which we hope to devise during the autumn. When the Exchequer contribution has been added, the whole Fund will be distributed among growers of barley at a rate varying from 2s. 6d. to 30s. per acre according as the average price of barley falls from 9s. 11d. to 8s. 1d. per cwt.

On the basis of the existing output and imports of beer, and the acreage under barley in 1938, contributions from the brewers and from the importers at the maximum rate of levy would yield about £,950,000, while the Exchequer contribution, in order to pay the maximum rate of subsidy of 30s. per acre, would be about £450,000. The trade interests will therefore provide about two-thirds to the scheme and the Exchequer about one-third. At the express wish of farmers and distillers in Scotland, provision is made under which distillers may be exempt from the payment of levy subject to the observance of certain conditions contained in the scheme.

The farmers who secure the minimum price mentioned in paragraph 12 of the scheme will not receive subsidy on that part of their crop so sold. The scheme includes provision regarding negligent cultivation, which I know will be a matter of interest to my noble friend Lord Phillimore, whom I see in his place, and in spite of the lateness of the season it is our intention to inspect as many farms as possible on which barley has been grown this spring—that is, as soon as the scheme has received the approval of Parliament. I think the House will agree that it is very satisfactory that an agreed 798 measure of assistance to barley growers has been prepared in time to come into operation for this year, and the ready co-operation that has existed between the farmers and the manufacturing interests, which has been shown in the negotiations which have recently taken place, has shown what a hopeful augury there is for the long-term negotiations which it is intended will open at a later stage this autumn. I beg to move.