§ 3.13 p.m.
§ THE EARL OF ONSLOWMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how many in-pig sows have been slaughtered over the last four weeks and how many in the same period last year.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, the available statistics do not distinguish the slaughtering of sows in pig. Estimated slaughterings of sows and boars for the four weeks ending April 27 total 35,600 head, compared with 27,500 head in the same four weeks last year.
§ THE EARL OF ONSLOWMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his information. May I ask him whether he saw the front page of the Farmers Weekly for May 10, which showed the Ipswich slaughterhouse, which had slaughtered 3,000 in-pig sows the week before and 200 the week before that? His right honourable friend in another place was asked on March 28 about similar figures for in-calf heifers. Will the Government please try to find out these figures, bearing in mind that it will be a dreadful strain on the balance of payments at the beginning of next year to import further pork and bacon requirements? In view of the fact that the in-pig sow population has fallen by 15 per cent. recently, do not the Government regard this as a very serious situation indeed?
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I do not know whether the noble Lord is challenging the figures which I have given but I will endeavour to find out what he asks. The Government readily admit that this is a serious problem. That is the reason why the Government, as the noble Lord will know, introduced a special subsidy fairly soon after taking office. It is a serious matter and my right honourable friend is well aware of it, as are the Government.
§ LORD LLOYD OF KILGERRANMy Lords, may I ask to what area those figures are supposed to relate?
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, they represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland—in other words the total for the United Kingdom.
§ LORD LLOYD OF KILGERRANMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware that when the Conservative Party were in power they gave something in the nature of an undertaking to the House that when they were delivering figures in regard to the United Kingdom they would give the figures for Wales separately.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLIf the noble Lord wants that, I will see what can be done, but we have always regarded Wales as a very close member of the family.
§ LORD DAVIES OF LEEKMy Lords, is my noble friend aware that the Answer and some of the supplementary answers to this vital Question anent 1018 British agriculture are of such importance that the nation should realise that we are facing a major crisis in British agriculture which should be faced by the nation as a whole? Finally, is he further aware—without paying too great a compliment to this side of the House—that it was the 1947 Agriculture Act of Tom Williams that realised the mighty importance of agriculture to the British people? Would be see that something is now done to take action as we did in 1945?
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I think that many of your Lordships who are intimately associated with farming and with this problem in particular will know that my right honourable friend said quite recently that this is a matter which has caused and is causing grave concern and that the whole of the agricultural policy will be looked into by him in the immediate future.
§ LORD BLYTONMy Lords, is the Minister aware that some of us on these Benches think the farmers revolt only when the Labour Party is in power and never when the Tories are in?
§ LORD SANDYSMy Lords, arising out of the previous reply of the Minister, I wonder whether he could tell us when the Government intend taking action on this Very important area of agricultural policy? We held our debate on agriculture on May 1 and since then we have not had any specific statement on the pig subsidy of 50p per score which, I understand, comes to an end at the end of this month.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, the noble Lord is perfectly right. I do not think that it is the intention of the Government to continue the subsidy after the period which has been laid down. Cereal prices are falling though they may not be falling by a large amount, and my right honourable friend, when he was addressing the Farmers' Club less than a week ago, said that, in his view, if pig producers were able to hold on through the present difficulty, the subsidy which he had been able to give (and to which the noble Lord has referred) would probably see them through their difficulties. So far as the future policy is concerned, this is a complicated matter, as the noble Lord knows only too well. I doubt whether there is 1019 anything more complicated than the agricultural situation in relation to ourselves and the Common Market. This will take time, but my right honourable friend is getting on with the job.
§ THE EARL OF ONSLOWIs the noble Lord aware that there is a strong feeling in the agricultural community—and here I must declare an interest because I am a farmer, though I do not have pigs—that the pig subsidy is going not to the pig farmers but to the butchers and the housewife? Clearly, we all want the housewife to have the cheapest possible meat, but we do not want to bankrupt the farmer in the process of so doing.
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLI think that the point raised by the noble Earl is clearly understood. As the noble Earl will know, the E.E.C. monetary compensatory amounts which were decided on May 1, when they were halved, should help the situation and should also, I think, help the pig farmer. However, these matters are being attended to.
§ LORD BEAUMONT OF WHITLEYMy Lords, since the figure for the slaughter of in-pig sows is an important indicator as to the situation in a crisis like this, I wonder whether the Minister would consider asking if these statistics could be kept in future?
§ LORD WELLS-PESTELLI think that all I can say in reply to the noble Lord is that the Ministry collects a very wide and comprehensive range of statistics, as he must know. To improve upon that will undoubtedly be costly—because for these figures the Ministry rely upon the slaughterhouses and other sources. I think I must be perfectly frank and say that when one relies upon the actions of other people there is a limit to what one can ask them to do, but I will bring the noble Lord's question to the notice of my right honourable friend to see whether something can be done about it in the future.
§ LORD LOVATMy Lords, do we not need an agriculture debate?
§ LORD SHEPHERDMy Lords, I think that perhaps we do need an agriculture debate. We have now been on Questions for some 23 minutes, and in view of the debates to come I think we ought now to move to next business.