§ Mr. Strangasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is he will publish the figures on farm incomes which were made available to the Agricultural Wages Board and on the basis of which it made its most recent pay award.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerThe Agricultural Wages Board for England and Wales is an independent body. I do not know what weight it gave to Ministry figures or any other information available to it in making its recent wage proposals. The information on the industry which the Ministry gave the board was of a provisional nature pending the completion of the annual review of agriculture. It indicated that aggregate net income was expected to fall in real terms in 1980 by between 20 per cent. and 25 per cent. Full details of the final figures will be published shortly, when the review is complete.