§ 2.35 p.m.
§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (EARL WALDEGRAVE), rose to move that the Ploughing Grants Scheme, 1962, be approved. The noble Earl said: My Lords, it is proposed to make the Ploughing Grants Scheme, 1962, which is the twelfth made under the 1952 Act, in the same terms as the 1961 Scheme, subject to the necessary advancement of dates. Your Lordships will remember that when I moved the Order last year I said that a major review of the ploughing grants had been undertaken. The Government's intentions have since been announced in the White Paper on the Annual Review, 1962, in paragraph 22. These intentions are, subject to obtaining legislative authority, to introduce Schemes to encourage the production of winter keep in livestock-rearing areas and the renovation of permanent grassland, and to link the introduction of these Schemes with a revision of the existing ploughing grants.
§ Discussions have been going on, and will continue, between the Agricultural Departments and the Farmers' Unions as to the design and content of these Schemes, but we are not yet in a position to bring detailed proposals before the House. Your Lordships will therefore understand the Government's decision in these circumstances not to alter the existing form of the ploughing grants or to change the rates of grants this year.
§ At this stage, following the practice of previous years, I think I should give your Lordships a summary of the results for the past year. The figures I shall give will be for the financial year end- 800 ing March 31, 1962. I cannot give the final details of the 1961 Scheme year, as ploughing under the 1961 Scheme may go on until the end of May, and payments will not be completed for a considerable time after that.
§ The figures, my Lords, are as follows: in England and Wales and Northern Ireland £9.0 million was paid to 156,070 applicants in respect of 1.3 million acres ploughing. The amounts for the different countries were as follows: Part I: England, £6.3 million for 910,000 acres; Wales, £1.0 million for 138,000 acres; Northern Ireland, £1.18 million for 167,000 acres, giving a total (in round figures) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland of £8.5 million for 1,215,000 acres. Then for Part II, the amounts were: England, £0.4 million for 28,000 acres; Wales, £0.1 million for 11,000 acres; Northern Ireland, £0.02 million for 2,000 acres; England, Wales and Northern Ireland, £0.5 million for 41,000 acres. It may be of interest to your Lordships to know that expenditure in England and Wales and Northern Ireland of £9.0 million in the financial year 1961–62 compared with expenditure in 1960–61 of £8.4 million.
§ Some critics have doubted whether the ploughing grants achieve a useful purpose. I think we need only look at the record of the past ten years to see how effective they have been. In that time the tillage acreage has dropped by about 1 million acres in the United Kingdom, but this has been balanced by an increase of about the same size in the area of temporary grass. The arable acreage has therefore remained steady. It seems clear that the ploughing grants have been successful in encouraging ley farming, with all the benefits that it brings to the industry. I have already said that discussions are continuing on our ideas for winter keep and grassland renovations Schemes. In the meantime, I hope that your Lordships will approve the 1962 Ploughing Grants Scheme. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Ploughing Grants Scheme, 1962, be approved.—(Earl Waldegrave.)
§ LORD WISEMy Lords, the Minister has a fairly easy task this afternoon in moving the acceptance of this Order. For many years now we have passed it year by year, and we will do so again 801 this afternoon. I regret that I was slightly late in coming into the House. The Minister gave a great mass of figures which we shall follow with interest when we see Hansard, but there was one figure that I did catch, and that was the total amount for 1960–61, which I think he said was about £8 million. In his speech last year he suggested that the total expenditure to March 31, 1961, would be £10.9 million. Is there any reason for the alteration or improvement which I read in these figures?
EARL WALDEGRAVEMy Lords, I do not know offhand what I said last year, but the figure for the year ending March 31, 1962, is £9 million for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It does not include Scotland. I could give the figure for Scotland but my noble friend may be speaking on the Ploughing Grants (Scotland) Scheme later. We are up this year. The comparable figure last year was £8.4 million. We are a year behind altogether. We are talking of 1961–62 and 1960– 61. Perhaps when I used the figure £10.9 million last year I was including Scotland.
§ LORD WISEMy Lords, the noble Minister last year used the figure £10.9 million up to March 31, 1961, but that probably covered Scotland as well, so the figures for this year are not very much different from what they were last year.
There is, however, one point that I wish to raise. I do not know whether the Minister dealt with this in his opening remarks, but last year he referred to the appointment of a Committee to deal with the whole question of these grants. He said in the course of his speech that his noble friend had caused a major review of the grants to be undertaken, "which is well advanced". He repeated twice, I think, that that review was "now well advanced ". Could he inform the House whether any progress has been made?—perhaps he had already done so before I came in. That is the only point I wish to make. Taking into account the rest of his speech, I hope that my noble friends on this side will agree that the Order should be approved.
EARL WALDEGRAVEMy Lords, may I just answer that question, as I have the figure here? If I said last year that expenditure in the United Kingdom 802 in the year ending 31st March, 1961, was going to be £10.9 million that was a good estimate, because I have just been passed a piece of paper which says that it was £10.9 million; so that answers that point. On the other point, I did mention that we have had this careful investigation as to the future of the ploughing grants. We have envisaged in paragraph 22 of the White Paper (Cmnd. 1658), that we shall make alterations in the ploughing grants, and introduce a winter keep grant, and so on, when we receive legislative authority to do so.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.