Departmental Policies (North-East Derbyshire) (Hansard, 24 April 2001)

§ Ms Quin

[holding answer 26 February 2001]: MAFF does not hold statistical information on a constituency basis relating to the Department's policies. Information on land use, crop areas, livestock numbers, and labour on holdings in England by parliamentary constituency has been produced from 1 June 1999 Annual Agricultural and Horticultural Census. A copy has been placed in the Library of the House. Information from the 1 June 2000 census will be available shortly and also placed in the House Library.

As many of the Department's policies flow from measures agreed within the framework of the EU Common Agricultural Policy, statistical data are normally available on a UK or England basis. Farmers in the UK receive approximately £3 billion per year in direct CAP payments. This does not include the significant additional costs to consumers as a result of CAP price supports which keep EU prices above prevailing world prices. The value of direct CAP payments to the average farmer is set out in the table.

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In addition to CAP direct payments, farmers in the UK are benefiting from £1.35 billion in short-term financial relief since 2 May 1997.

This includes £785 million in agrimonetary compensation worth some £4,800 per average arable farmer, £3,200 per average dairy farmer, £1,400 per average sheep farmer, and £1,140 and £3,800 per average farmer for agrimonetary compensation related to the Beef Special Premium Scheme and Suckler Cow Premium Scheme respectively.

Since May 1997 the Government have more than doubled expenditure on agri-environment schemes in England. We now have more than twice as much land covered by Countryside Stewardship agreements and we have increased the funding of organic conversion from £571,000 in 1997–98 to £12 million in 2000–01 and £18 million in 2001–02. Full-time hill farmers in England will be in receipt of some £6,360 on average following the introduction of the Hill Farm Allowance Scheme this year. This compares to £4,048 under the Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance in 1997–98.

Farmers in North-East Derbyshire can benefit from schemes available under the England Rural Development Programme, which is backed by funding of £1.6 billion over the period 2000–06. Three of the schemes within this programme—Rural Enterprise, Processing and Marketing, and Vocational Training—have a budget of around £190 million and are being operated on a regional basis; each region has its own allocation. These allocations are set out in the England Rural Development Programme.

Average subsidies received by full-time farm businesses, England 1999–2000
£000
	Total direct subsidies	Crop subsidies	Of which: Livestock subsidies	Agri-environment	Other¹
Cereals	37.8	34.2	2.3	1.0	0.1
General Cropping	31.8	28.8	2.4	0.6	0.0
Horticulture	0.4	0.2	0.0	0.1	0.2
Pigs and Poultry	3.6	2.2	1.4	0.1	0.0
Dairy	8.5	2.8	4.9	0.8	0.0
LFA Cattle and Sheep	29.3	0.4	25.4	3.3	0.2
Lowland Cattle and Sheep	14.1	1.7	10.6	1.8	0.0
Mixed	33.8	21.4	10.7	1.7	0.0
All Types	22.5	14.8	6.4	1.2	0.1
¹ Includes capital grants and any other miscellaneous grants. These reflect a combination of nationally funded and partly match funded schemes.

Notes:

HLCA payments to hill farms are included under livestock subsidies.

The figures show direct subsidy payments; they do not include allowance for the financial benefit of prices supported above world market levels under the CAP.

Source:

Farm Business Survey

In addition to CAP direct payments, farmers in the UK are benefiting from £1.35 billion in short-term financial relief since 2 May 1997.

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Consumers in North-East Derbyshire will benefit from the Agenda 2000 reforms of the CAP in the form of reduced food bills, with the average saving for a typical family rising to £65 a year by 2010.