§ Mr. David Stoddartasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will take steps to enable the Home-Grown Cereals Authority to meet the deficiency in its 1972–73 accounts arising from the fact that there were no deficiency payments on wheat in that year.
§ Mr. BuchanYes. In 1972–73 there were no deficiency payments on wheat from which a levy would normally have been deducted to meet those expenses incurred by the authority attributable to wheat. Therefore, in order to meet obligations that normally would have been financed from a levy on growers of wheat, the authority had to borrow from the banks. The total sum involved will not exceed £700,000, most of which is attributable to bonuses paid to growers under the Forward Contract Bonus Scheme. We therefore intend to advance up to £700,000 to the authority to the extent to which it is required.
The payments will rest on the authority of the Appropriation Act and a Supplementary Estimate will be presented to Parliament in due course. In the meantime we shall have recourse to the Contingencies Fund.