§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list for each of the last 10 years, the amount of European Community money which has been used to upgrade abattoirs; how many abattoirs have received this aid; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. Curry[pursuant to the reply, 24 October 1989, c. 442.]: The information is as follows:
EC regulation 355/77 Awards and payments concerning red meat abattoirs in the United Kingdom: 1978–88 Awards made by commission of which those remaining eligible to claim grant for which actual payments made Year Number of projects (a) amounts £ Number of projects (b) amounts £ (c) £ 1978 9 1,262,943 7 687,462 — 1979 7 1,152,203 6 1,138,650 49,178 1980 14 2,791,853 10 1,790,723 511,925 1981 9 1,721,223 8 1,687,898 710,710 1982 1,063,988 3 1,028,345 1,407,203 1983 2 175,350 1 142,551 885,819 1984 2 392,146 2 392,146 717,845 1985 — — — — 1,107,935 1986 2 679,232 2 679,232 710,065 1987 1 22,897 1 22,897 94,127 1988 1 750,000 1 750,000 558,187 Total 51 £10,011,835 41 £8,319,904 £6,752,994 Data are provided back to 1978, which was the first year of the awards under regulation EEC 355/77 (the regulation which provides for grants to help improve the marketing and processing structures of primary agricultural products).
The first column of the table shows all awards announced by the Commission to those projects in the red meat sector in the United Kingdom which wholly or partly include slaughtering. Ten of these awards were subsequently renounced by the applicants or cancelled by the Commission, either because the projects did not start, or were not in the event undertaken in accordance with the conditions laid down. The awards for projects which remained eligible to claim grant are set out in the second column.
The final column sets out the payments made by the end of 1988. Because there can be a time lag of up to four years from the date of the announcement of an award to the final payment (most beneficiaries would also claim an interim payment) there can rarely be an obvious year-by-year relationship between the amounts in the second and third columns. In addition some final claims are for sums which may be considerably less than the original award—for example, where actual costs turned out to be less than earlier forecasts.
No awards have been made to the red-meat sector in England since 1983, when the first investment programme under the scheme for this sector expired and was not renewed due to lack of foreseeable funding from the Commission. The red-meat sector has remained eligible for awards in the rest of the United Kingdom throughout the whole period.