§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for 1973 and each of the past five years the common guide and intervention prices for adult bovine animals, the amount bought for intervention, the amount of surplus production and the total cost to the European Economic Community budget, together with the cost of the United Kingdom beef variable premium scheme and any other arrangements for subventions to beef farmers.
§ Mr. MacGregorInformation on institutional prices, production and consumption and expenditure through the Community budget is published by the EC Commission in "The Agricultural situation in the Community" report 1984 for the three most recent years for which data are available and in previous reports for earlier years. Copies are available in the Library of the House. In addition to 81W expenditure through the Community budget, United Kingdom exchequer expenditure on the beef variable premium, suckler cow premium and hill low schemes was as follows:
£ million 1973 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 Beef variable premium — 45.0 19.6 7.0 73.9 86.8 Suckler cow premium — 1.4 7.3 6.2 6.0 9.3 Hill cattle subsidy 16.0 — — — — — Hill low compensatory allowances — 18.5 28.2 29.1 29.0 28.9 Quantities of beef bought into intervention were as follows:
'000 tonnes Year Amount 1973 *22 1980 410 1981 280 1982 269 1983 445 1984 490 * Estimate.