§ Mr. Gordon MarsdenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set out, including statistical information relating as directly as possible to the constituency, the effect on the Blackpool, South constituency of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [142229]
§ Ms QuinAs most of my 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, but not disaggregated further. However, farmers in the UK have benefited from this Government's policies to the tune of £1.2 billion since646W 2 May 1997 in addition to the figure of approximately £3 billion per year in direct CAP payments. Farmers in the Blackpool, South constituency will also have available to them all of the 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.