§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set out, including statistical information relating as directly as possible to the Truro and St. Austell constituency, the effects on Truro and St. Austell of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [154531]
117W
§ Ms QuinMAFF 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 has been placed in the House Library.
Average subsidies received by full-time farm businesses, England 1999–2000 £000 Of which: Total direct subsidies Crop subsidies 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
1. HLCA payments to hill farms are included under livestock subsidies.
2. 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. 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 1996–97.
Truro and St. Austell also fall within an area with an objective 1 designation. This means that under the EU structural funds, the area is eligible for assistance to promote its development and structural adjustment. About £50 million of European funding over the next six years is available for rural development measures in Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. This money will attract an equal amount of national public spending as matched funding, the majority of which will be provided by this Department. Details of these measures, which include
118WAs 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.
support for processing and marketing, farm diversification and training, are set out in the single programming document for Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. Farmers in Truro and St. Austell can also benefit from agri-environment schemes available under the England rural development programme.
Consumers in Truro and St. Austell 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.
In relation to the Department's responsibility for fisheries policy, our key priority is to protect our fisheries resources for the future and we are taking firm action to ensure a viable future for the fishing industry. The last set of grant schemes, which ended in 1999, invested over £27 million in measures to help the fishing industry in England. Fishermen operating in the Truro and St. Austell constituency will now benefit from the £22.5 million aid package announced on 2 April to help restructure the English fishing industry, to improve the quality and value of the catch, and to retrain fishermen and rejuvenate fishing ports.