§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to his reply dated 20 April, Official Report, c. 65–66, concerning the reduction in the real incomes of farmers since 1970, if he will publish a table in the Official Report in terms of persons or holdings or otherwise showing farming income for different sectors and in particular the returns on cereals, milk and livestock products.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe figures I gave in reply to the hon. Member's previous question were derived from the output, input and income tables of successive annual review of agriculture White Papers. These do not apportion farming income between individual sectors, and it is not therefore possible to provide comparable information on the lines requested. Information on the average net income of different types of farm is however given in paragraphs 11–13 and in table 24 of the "Annual Review of Agriculture 1982" White Paper, Cmnd. 8491.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to the reply of 20 April, Official Report, c. 62, showing the change in the real incomes of farmers since 1970, whether and to what extent the figures represent a change in the actual standards of living of farmers in terms of disposable incomes; whether he collects figures of incomes in a form which enables them to be classified by income groups; and whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the distribution of farm incomes on the same or as near the same basis as given by the hon. Member for Cirencester and Tewkesbury (Mr. Ridley) in his reply of 8 March, Official Report, c. 299–300.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe figures which I gave in my previous reply to the hon. Member were based on the farming income figure in successive annual review of agriculture White Papers. The farming income calculation does not measure the disposable income of individual farmers and it follows that the figures may not represent changes in actual standards of living. Nor does the calculation permit classification by income groups. Information is however available from the farm management surveys about the distribution of full-time farms according to the level of net farm income as defined in the surveys. The latest published analyses are given, for England, in table 3 "Farm Management Survey in England, Supplementary Analyses 1979/80"; for Scotland in table 3 of "Farm Accounts 1979/80 and 1980/81, Analysis by type and size for full time farm businesses"; and for Northern Ireland in table 5 of "Farm Accounts Northern Ireland 1979/80 and 1980/81". Copies of these documents are in the Library of the House.