§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Wales, further to his written reply to the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, Official Report, 21 November, c. 23, on the sheepmeat regime, if he will publish details in the Official Report of the total number of payments made to individual farm enterprises of the annual ewe premium in each marketing year since the operation of the scheme and also the total number of individual payments of the variable slaughter premium made to a farm enterprise for the same periods.
§ Mr. Nicholas EdwardsPayments under the sheep variable premium scheme and the sheep annual premium scheme are not made in respect of in dividual farm enterprises. Under the sheep variable premium scheme payments are related to certified animals presented at Welsh certification centres, and under the sheep annual premium scheme to the number of claimants. Relevant data are as follows:324W
1980–81 (from 20 October) 1981–82 1982–83 Sheep variable premium scheme Payments made—£ million 7.5 12.6 25.3 Number of certified animals 999,765 2,383,307 2,489,969 Sheep annual premium scheme Payments—£ million 2.5 5.2 10.3 Number of claimants 15,665 15,665 15,583