§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total square footage of warehouse or other storage facilities which has been commissioned by the intervention board for the storage of food surpluses; and what was the comparable amount of storage space commissioned or financed in each of the previous three years.
§ Mr. MacGregor:I regret that this information is not available since storage is measured by the quantities of stocks as given in my answer earlier today, and not by the square foot.
§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total sum which has been expended by the intervention board for the provision of storage accommodation and related facilities for the housing of food surpluses in the most recent annual period for which figures are available; and what were the comparable totals in each of the previous three years.
§ Mr. MacGregor:Storage, handling and related costs were as follows:
£ million 1980–81 14.1 1981–82 15.5 1982–83 25.9 1983–84 48.6
§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total amount of cereals and other surplus foodstuffs, respectively, which are stored in public and private stores, respectively, on the most recent date for which figures are available; and what were the comparable totals in each of the previous three years.
§ Mr. MacGregor:Cereal and other intervention stocks on 31 May of each year were as follows:
million tonnes Year Cereals Other 1982 0.2 0.1 1983 0.9 0.2 1984 0.2 0.3 1985 4.2 0.3 On 31 May of this year 0.4 million tonnes of cereals were held in Government-owned stores. Corresponding figures for previous years are not available and would be disproportionately costly to obtain. Other commodities are stored exclusively on commercial premises.
§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total sum which has been expended by the intervention board in providing subsidies for the export of surplus foodstuffs to non-European Economic Community countries in the most recent annual period for which figures are available; and what amount of this total is recoverable from Common Market funds.
293W
§ Mr. MacGregor:Net expenditure on refunds on exports of foodstuffs to third countries, including monetary compensatory amounts, in 1983–84 was £360 million, all of which was prefunded by the EAGGF.