§ Lord Hivesasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they will reissue more of the milk quota brought up under the Outgoers' Scheme in England and Wales.
§ Lord BelsteadMy right honourable friend announced in July last year that, together with my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Wales, he aimed to make further allocations of quota to three categories of producer in 1986–87. I am glad to say that it will now be possible to enable these allocations to be made ahead of schedule, in 1985–86.
The first group of producers we are helping comprises those whose development awards represented a high proportion of their total quota. These producers were particularly hard hit by the 35 per cent. cutback on those awards. They will now have sufficient quota restored to them to ensure that they have at least 90 per cent. of the total quota which they would have had if there had been no cutback.
The second group comprises small producers with development awards. We shall now be ending completely the 35 per cent. cutback on development awards for all producers with quotas of up to 200,000 litres. At the same time we shall restore to 200,000 litres the quotas of other producers who have been reduced below this level by the cutback. To avoid anomalies, no producer benefiting from this provision will have his quota increased beyond the 200,000-litre mark.
The third group we are helping includes producers with land which was expropriated by public authorities but which will be returned to dairying by 31st March 1989.
Arrangements are also being made to allocate quota to certain institutions which used milk from their own herds in their catering arrangements before the introduction, last November, of additional restrictions on the use of unpasteurised milk.