HC Deb 22 July 1982 vol 28 cc252-3W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to the reply of 19 May, Official Report, c. 178, concerning the size and ownership of agricultural holdings, whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the number and acreage of holdings of more than 500 hectares in each category, and the number of holdings of over 200 hectares which were wholly or mainly hill farms; and if he will break down the original and new information on holdings to provide separate figures for each of the countries in the United Kingdom.

Mrs. Fenner

The breakdown by country of the information supplied to the hon. Member on 19 May is as follows:

Owned or mainly owned Tenanted or mainly tenanted Number
Holding size group—total area (hectares) Number '000 Area '000 hectares Number '000 Area '000 hectares
20 to 199.9 10.4 795.6 7.2 543.1
200 and over 2.4 2,442.9 2.0 1,727.4
TOTAL 17.1 3,271.2 14.3 2,308.3

Northern Ireland has no tenancies other than seasonal grazing.

I regret that the remaining information requested is not readily available and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.