§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether she will publish in the Official Report an estimate of the number of jobs which have been lost as a result of the reduction in dairy output, distinguishing between agriculture and processing, the amount of compensation paid under the terms of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 and the amount of compensation so far committed to farmers under the £50 million scheme.
§ Mr. JoplingNo. The available information is not in sufficient detail to enable an estimate to be made of job losses or to calculate the redundancy payments directly attributable to the reduction in dairy output.
The amount of payments so far committed under the milk supplementary levy (outgoers) scheme is slightly under £27 million.