§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the United Kingdom sugar companies which benefited in each of the last five years from export refunds paid by the European Economic Community; and what was the aggregate of such refunds to United Kingdom companies during the same period.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithIt would be a breach of commercial confidence to reveal the names of individual companies benefiting from refunds of the export of sugar. In the calendar years 1975–79 the United Kingdom intervention board for agricultural produce has paid out a total of £5,719,848 under this heading, the great bulk of it to United Kingdom companies, which would also have benefited from refunds paid by the intervention agencies of other member States when sugar was exported through ports in those States.