§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the estimated number of unemployed arising from the reduced number of egg production units in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. BishopNo separate figures of employment in egg production are available.
§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many egg producers went out of production in the year 1974; and what plans he has to arrest the current trend of further contraction in this industry.
§ Mr. BishopThe figures are not available in the form requested but information on changes in the number of holdings with laying birds will become available when the June 1975 census returns have been fully processed.
No recent census figures for Scotland are yet available but the provisional results of the June 1975 census for England and Wales show that the egg laying flock fell by 21 per cent. between June 1974 and June 1975. On the other hand packing station throughput is currently running at a similar level to that of 1974 and chick placings in the United Kingdom as a whole in May and June this year were in total some 14 per cent. above 1974 levels.
§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether it is his policy to encourage the setting up of very large producers of eggs with the help of Government subsidies and grants.
§ Mr. BishopNo.
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§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total amount of subsidies paid from Government funds in the most convenient recent period to egg producers with flocks of over 1 million birds.
§ Mr. BishopNo grants or subsidies are paid to egg producers under current schemes administered by my Department. Some payments of grant are still being made under the Farm Capital Grants Scheme 1970 for which applications were accepted from egg producers until 31st December 1973. The information about payments to egg producers is not available in the form requested.