§ 22. Sir Hector Monroasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the sale or lease of milk quotas.
§ Mr. MacGregorAt present the sale or lease of milk quotas as such is not permitted although quotas may be transferred with land. We fully recognise the need to achieve greater flexibility in the quota system and are therefore taking the initiative in pursuing the possibility of getting agreement to the leasing and sale of quotas in discussion in the Council of Ministers. This will not be easy to negotiate as there is still strong opposition to both concepts from the Commission and some member states, especially to sale which is unlikely to be negotiable at the moment.
§ 27. Mrs. Kellett-Bowmanasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much quota has now been surrendered under the milk outgoers' scheme; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacGregorBy 10 May, 1,595 producers had committed themselves to surrender a total of 265.0 million litres.
I am pleased to say that, we have achieved our two principal objectives of making exceptional hardship awards in full for 1985–86 and restoring small producers' quotas to base year production levels for 1985–86.