HC Deb 30 November 1976 vol 921 cc122-3W
Mr. Hugh Jenkins

asked the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has on what happens to the 50,000 animals exported from the United Kingdom to laboratories abroad each year.

Mr. Strang

I have no information on this subject. My departmental responsibilities regarding the export of animals for laboratory purposes are limited to ensuring that they are transported from this country in a humane manner in accordance with the Transit of Animals (General) Order 1973.

Mr. Gourlay

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give details of the latest estimate he has made of the cost in 1976–77 of expenditure by his Department and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland under United Kingdom price guarantees and other grants and subsidies, together with comparable figures for the preceding year.

Mr. John Silkin

Following are the details of the latest estimates for the financial year 1976–77, together with the comparable figures for the outturn in the financial year 1975–76:

Latest estimate of outturn 1976–77(b) Actual outturn 1975–76
£million £million
Brucellosis Eradication Incentives … … 16.0 18.4
Others … … 3.2 4.2
Total … … 218.4 209.3
Grand Total … … 218.3 219.3

  1. (a) Expenditure under the milk guarantee arrangements, together with the special additional payments, is estimated at £284 million in 1975–76 and £223 million in 1976–77. This expenditure is attributed to food subsidies.
  2. (b) Of the estimated outturn for 1976–77, £15–5 million is expected to be financed from the Guidance Section of the European Guidance and Guarantee Fund, mainly in respect of the Hill Livestock compensatory allowances and the Dairy Herd Conversion Scheme, as compared with £4.4 million from the Fund in 1975–76.
  3. (c) Some unavoidable delay in payments of hill livestock compensatory allowances in 1975–76 resulted in a carry-over of £16–4 million into 1976–77.

EXPENDITURE BY THE INTERVENTION BOARD FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE
Latest estimate of outturn 1976–77 £million Actual outturn 1975–76 £million
Cereals … … … … 29.7 46.2
Beef and veal … … … … 16.4 113.0
Pigmeat … … … … 11.1 38.6
Sugar … … … … 33.5 41.2
Herbage and field bean seeds … … … … 1.5 1.5
Hops … … … … 1.1 2.1
Processed products … … … … 5.3 3.4
Milk products … … … … 27.5 61.8
Others … … … … 3.7 2.9
129.8 310.7

Expenditure by the Intervention Board includes the beef premium scheme, refunds on imports and exports, certain production subsidies, aids for private storage and animal feed, the net costs of intervention buying, and the special import subsidies on sugar. Of the estimated outturn for 1976–77, £117.7 million is expected to be financed from the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, the balance being financed from Exchequer funds; in 1975–76 £2596 million was financed from the EAGGF. Some of the expenditure shown above benefits consumers rather than producers.

The reduction in expenditure in 1976–77 compared with 1975–76 is mainly due to the change introduced in May under which monetary compensatory amounts