§ Mr. JoplingTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will give details of how he intends to allot the extra £16.5 million in compensatory allowances payable on hill sheep and cattle in the 1992–93 scheme year.
§ Mr. Gummer[pursuant to the reply, 14 November 1991, c. 621]: I am pleased to be able to announce that United Kingdom Agriculture Ministers have completed the autumn review of economic conditions in the hills and uplands and our consideration of responses to the consultation document "Environmental Aspects of Support for Hill Farming" which was issued for comment on 13 November 1991.
The review has shown that the average net farm income of livestock producers in the United Kingdom's hill and upland areas is forecast to rise in 1991–92 following significant falls in the previous two years. There will be a further increase following the exceptional additional payment of nearly £12 million in suckler cow premium, which I announced today, since over two thirds of this will go to hill farmers. After careful consideration we have concluded that, subject to parliamentary approval, the rates of HLCA per animal should be maintained at the 1991 level but the financial ceilings per hectare should be raised. This will particularly assist those producers—mainly of cattle—who did not fully benefit from last year's substantial (14 per cent.) increase in headage rates. The headage rates and financial ceilings for the 1992 scheme will thus be:
499W
Severely disadvantaged area (SDA) Disadvantaged area (DA) £ £ Cows 63.30 31.65 Hardy breed ewes 8.75 n/a Other ewes 4.90 245. Financial ceiling (per hectare) 181.13 26.85 1Previously 62.48 per hectare.
2Previously 46.86 per hectare.
The additional payment limits of 1.4 livestock units per hectare and of six ewes per hectare (SDA) or nine ewes per hectare (DA) remain unchanged.
The raising of the financial ceilings will add £2.5 million to the cost of the scheme bringing the estimated value of payments to hill farmers in a full scheme year to £148.5 million.
My right hon. Friends and I have considered carefully the many responses to our consultation documentation "Environmental Aspects of Support for Hill Farming". The responses demonstrated widespread support for our intention to tackle the problems that have been associated with increased livestock numbers in some parts of the less favoured areas (LFA). We have concluded that the measures proposed in the consultation document are well balanced and are recognised as making an important contribution to the upland environment.
We propose therefore to introduce these measures as follows:
the new environmentally sensitive areas announced on 20 November situated in hill areas in England and Wales will be introduced during 1992 and 1993. New ESAs within the LFA will also be designated in Scotland and Northern Ireland. They will help farmers to conserve and enhance the landscape and wildlife characteristics of these areas;a voluntary code of good upland management will be published and sent to each HLCA claimant this spring;the HLCA regulations will be reinforced this year by a specific definition of overgrazing, designed to enable problems to be tackled more effectively on any vegetation type in any part of the LFA. This measure will be further strengthened by unused common land grazing rights in England and Wales no longer being re-allocated for HLCA purposes where overgrazing is found to be occurring;it remains our intention to scale SDA sheep headage rates if these are adjusted in the future. Many respondents to the consultation stressed the close links between this proposal and the negotiations on GATT and CAP reform, particularly as regards the ewe premium. Unfortunately, the outcome of these negotiations remains unclear and the impact of scaling HLCA rates is correspondingly uncertain. It would therefore be premature to introduce scaling in the 1992 scheme. Scaling will in future be considered in the context of the autumn review, the precise arrangements being dependent on the resources available at the time. We will of course continue in the negotiations on CAP reform to press for the closer integration of environmental considerations into the common agricultural policy where practical and cost effective.We intend to lay regulations before Parliament very shortly which will implement in Great Britain the rates and scheme conditions I have outlined. We are also taking the opportunity to consolidate and refine the current regulations. The new regulations will in particular make the provisions governing the eligibility of cattle and sheep consistent with one another and will include an amendment to the power of entry for inspectors to align it with the powers provided in both the suckler cow and the sheep annual premium regulations. Parallel regulations will be introduced in Northern Ireland.
My colleagues and I recognise the importance of these payments to producers particularly in easing their winter cash flow problems. Top priority will be given in the next couple of months to processing the HLCA payments, although this may mean that it will take a little longer to pay other grants, at least in England. Payable orders for 500W HLCAs should start to be dispatched within the next fortnight to those producers whose claims have been lodged and accepted by local offices.