§ Mr. Nichollsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Gillingham (Mr. Couchman) of 7 November 1985, Official Report, column 6, if he is now able to announce further details of the reduction expected in Agricultural Development and Advisory Service posts by the spring of 1987.
§ Mr. JoplingMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales and I believe that economies and improvements in the efficiency of ADAS are possible which will lead to savings of about 370 ADAS posts and some 80 non-ADAS posts, as foreshadowed in my statement of 7 November. It is envisaged that ADAS posts will be distributed as follows: agriculture service, 107; agricultural science service, 80; land and water service, 37; and the state veterinary service, at most 141. The figure for the veterinary service includes the result of two recent efficiency and organisational studies covering the veterinary investigation service and the organisation of the service at divisional level, which account together for 56 posts. The balance is subject to possible downward adjustment following reassessment of the revenue from certain schemes. Further details for each service have been placed in the Library of the House.
These economies cannot be achieved without redundancies, but every effort will be made to deal sympathetically with the problems of those who are displaced.