§ Mr. Jacksonasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that under the present procedure two separate bodies are dealing with the ploughing-up of grassland; that therefore occupiers of farms will be subjected to inspections of their land by two separate authorities, and will he consider, in view of the advantages both from an economic and administrative point of view, arranging for the inspections of both categories of grassland to be dealt with by the war agricultural committees to whom he has entrusted the food production campaign?
§ Sir R. Dorman-SmithThe only bodies responsible for giving directions with respect to the cultivation, management or use of agricultural land, including the ploughing-up of grassland, are the County War Agricultural Executive Committees, to whom my powers under the Defence Regulations have been delegated by the Cultivation of Lands Order, 1939. The payment of the Government grant of £ 2 per acre upon grassland ploughed up remains a direct responsibility of the Agricultural Department concerned, but I can assure the hon. Member that there will be no avoidable duplication in the activities of my Department and the Committees.