§ Mr. Robert HicksTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many disputed milk quota exceptional hardship claims were taken to judicial review following consideration by the diary produce tribunal for England and Wales; in how many of those claims the courts referred the cases back to the tribunal for reconsideration; what was the total litreage of quota at issue in these cases; and what was the actual additional litreage allocated to the producers concerned.
§ Mr. CurryThere have been eight judicial reviews of decisions of the dairy produce quotas tribunal relating to quota claims on the grounds of exceptional hardship, as defined in paragraph 17 of part II to schedule 2 of the Dairy Produce Quotas Regulations 1984 and 1986. Of these, four claims were referred back to the tribunal for re-hearing. These re-hearings resulted in tribunal awards of quota totalling just over 1 million litres. Claimants were not required, under the provisions of the regulations, to state the litreage of quota which they considered to be at issue in that case. It is my understanding that none of the four had been awarded exceptional hardship quota in their original tribunal hearing, although two had been given primary quota awards which together totalled over 3 million litres.