§ Mr. Richard Shepherdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish under the Croham Directive the papers prepared by his Department concerning the common agricultural policy.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerI shall continue to keep in mind the desirability of publishing factual studies such as the one which I sent to my hon. Friend on 12 August 1980. Most of the material prepared by my Department is, however, in the context of confidential advice to Ministers on policy.
§ Mr. Richard Shepherdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish any paper or papers which have been prepared by his Department detailing the costs of the common agricultural policy to the consumer.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerI have dealt with this subject at length in correspondence with my hon. Friend and answered a number of recent questions on it. My Department has no papers immediately available in a form suitable for publication.
§ Mr. Richard Shepherdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what effect he estimates the common agricultural policy has had on the retail price index for each year since the United Kingdom's membership of the European Economic Community.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerI refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to him by my hon. Friend the Minister of State in answer to a question on 21 December 1979. The figure given then remains true for 1980. Since the calculations are complicated, I do not consider it would be justified to prepare estimates for earlier years.—[Vol. 976 c.504–505.]