§ Mr. Richard Shepherdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the value of the level of support received by British farmers under the common agricultural policy for each of the years since United Kingdom accession to the Community; how this compares with British national support for the five years preceding; and if he will express his reply both in £ sterling terms and inflation adjusted terms.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithI regret that information is not available in the form requested. United Kingdom public expenditure in each of these years on price guarantees, grants and market regulation is shown in the White Papers on the Annual Review of Agriculture.
However, public expenditure does not represent the full value of agricultural support since it ignores the extent to which market prices were raised before accession by import arrangements and since accession by the organisation of the market under the common agricultural policy.
§ Mr. Richard Shepherdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been the difference in support received by British farmers and the levies and taxes raised from the British consumer under the common agricultural policy as computed by the Community for each year since the United Kingdom's accession; and if he will express his reply in both £ sterling terms and inflation adjusted terms.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithI do not understand what my hon. Friend means by
difference in support received by British farmers".If
levies and taxes raised from the British consumerrefers to the levies raised on imports of agricultural products from outside the Community, the figures are as follows: 55W
In current prices £ million In constant 1975 prices✶ £ million 1973 24.2 34.9 1974 28.5 35.4 1975 49.2 49.2 1976 46.4 39.8 1977 164.6 121.9 1978 224.9 153.8 1979 228.3 137.7 1980 †245.4 †l25.5 ✶deflated by the all-items Retail Price Index base 1975=100. †estimated.