§ Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smithasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement concerning planned expenditure for agriculture, fisheries and food, in 1985 to 1986.
§ Mr. JoplingAs announced in the Chancellor's statement today, planned expenditure on agriculture, fisheries and food in 1985–86 will be £2249 million. This represents a net increase in support for the industries of £103 million over what was previously planned. Within this total, provision is made for additional expenditure of £189 million by the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce, mainly to finance the expected increase in intervention for cereals, partly offset by reduced expenditure of £58 million by the three Agriculture Departments on schemes pre-funded by the Community. The net increase in expenditure funded by the European Community amounts to £131 million.
The other expenditure in 1985–86 for which my agriculture colleagues and I are responsible, shows a net reduction of £36 million —4.2 per cent. of domestic expenditure and 1.7 per cent. of total expenditure on agriculture fisheries and food. Our main concern had been, taking account of changing circumstances and developments in the European Community, to ensure that the resources available for these programmes within total planned public expenditure are deployed in ways which will best serve the changing needs of the industry. In this connection, the future role of ADAS has recently been reviewed by the Director General and his report will be published tomorrow.
We shall be reducing expenditure under the capital grants schemes by about £40 million in 1985–86. The details will be given in orders which I shall shortly lay before Parliament. The changes in the schemes are designed to pave the way for the new measures which we expect to introduce in 1985 to implement a new EC
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£'000 Class Vote Department Original cash limit Increase due to outgoers scheme Other changes Revised cash limit III 2 IBAP 19,481 — *600 20,141 III 4 MAFF 143,545 6,249 *-660 149,134 XV 2 DAFS 61,235 775 †-2 62,008 XVI 5 WO 48,979 1,260 ‡-2,482 47,757 NID1 Northern Ireland Departments ║2,059.5 ║1.7 ║¶1.3 ║2,062.5 structures regulation. They will take account of particular needs in the livestock sector and will further advance my intention to secure a better balance in these policies between agriculture and conservation. We shall also be making a reduction of £12 million in assistance for arterial drainage and flood protection. We intend to provide continued support for hill farming through livestock compensatory allowances extended to the newly designated areas and I shall be announcing the 1985 rates shortly. There will also be provision for the continuation of the enhanced rate of suckler cow subsidy I announced last April and for payments to producers under the milk outgoers's scheme, amounting together to some £20 million. The net outcome for domestic expenditure I refer to above takes account of these commitments and further adjustments.