HC Deb 11 January 1990 vol 164 cc744-5W
65. Mr. Hind

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what policies are being developed to ensure that the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service is becoming more commercial in its operations.

Mr. Gummer

ADAS introduced its commercial services in April 1987. Since then it has exceeded its revenue targets in both 1987–88 and 1988–89, and is expected to do so again in the current financial year. Steps have also been taken to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The performance of ADAS is kept under review and in the medium term it has been set a target of recovering 50 per cent. of the full economic cost of providing commercial advisory services by 1993–94.