§ Mr. Biffenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list in respect of the last five years the financial support given by the United Kingdom Government and EEC agencies, respectively, to the following separate sectors of domestic agriculture: beef, lamb, pigmeat, dairying, and poultry meat and eggs.
§ Mr. BishopPublic expenditure on those sectors, indicating separately the amounts funded by the United Kingdom Government and by the EEC, is set out in the attached table which is based on Table 25 of the White Paper—Cmnd. 7058—on the Annual Review of Agriculture 1978. The table also shows the total expenditure on several grants and subsidies which benefit some of the sectors but cannot be precisely allocated between them.
681W
682W
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE UNDER THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY AND ON NATIONAL GRANTS AND SUBSIDIES (a) £ million—April-March financial years 1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 1976-77 1977-78 United Kingdom EEC United Kingdom EEC United Kingdom EEC United Kingdom EEC United Kingdom EEC Beef 60.1 1.1 140.8 29.3 116.5 73.7 82.4 14.4 75.7 -11.0 (e) Lamb 10.4 — 28.3 — 18.5 2.7 29.5 9.7 18.7 6.1 Pigmeat — 19.0 29.2 24.1 — 38.6 6.2 12.3 10.6 -0.2 (e) Dairying (b) 111.7 21.0 -5.1 (d) 40.9 9.9 51.9 -11.0 (d) 35.1 35.1 37.4 Poultrymeat and eggs 5.7 0.2 0.3 0.4 — 0.4 — -0.3 (e) — -0.4 (e) General grants and subsidies which may benefit the sectors above 111.1 1.4 116.7 5.5 89.4 6.9 76.2 3.9 88.0 20.9 Notes: (a) This table excludes expenditure which may benefit farmers but where the value to them is not shown by the expenditure (e.g. expenditure on animal disease and pest control or on research, advice and education). It does however include some expenditure which benefits consumers and overseas exporting interests rather than producers (see note (c)). The figures for years up to and including 1975-76 represent actual expenditure recorded in the Appropriation Accounts. The figures for 1976-77 are subject to confirmation and those for 1977-78 are the latest estimates of expenditure. (b) United Kingdom payments on milk reflect the Government policy of holding down the retail price of milk. For public expenditure purposes they have been attributed to expenditure under the price guarantees in 1973-74 and included in the table above but for subsequent years the expenditure has been attributed to the food subsidies programme. (c) The figures shown are United Kingdom national expenditure not refundable from FEOGA and "EEC expenditure which is the amount funded by FEOGA. The figures are made up of several elements and include import refunds (net of export levies) on intra-Community trade, import and export refunds on third country trade, the beef premium scheme, aid for private storage and animal feed, certain production subsidies and the net cost of commodities brought into intervention and subsequently sold. Much of the expenditure benefits consumers and overseas exporting interests rather than producers. The consumer subsidy on butter is not included. (d) Negative sign indicates a net receipt on intervention buying and selling. (e) Negative signs indicate FEOGA receipts of export levies.