§ Mr. Nicholas BennettTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give the total acreage of farmland which it is hoped will be taken out of production under the set-aside scheme and whether he proposes to take reserve powers to make the scheme compulsory; to be activated in the event that insufficient reductions are made by voluntary means.
§ Mr. Ieuan Wyn JonesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much land he expects to be taken out of agriculture through the voluntary set-aside scheme in each of the English regions, Wales and Scotland; and what proportion of land at present in use each figure represents.
§ Mr. MacGregorI will not be in a position to estimate the area likely to be taken out of production until I have assessed the initial uptake of the United Kingdom scheme, details of which I shall announce as soon as our consideration of the recently decided Community regulations is completed. The relevant Community legislation provides that set-aside should be voluntary for individual farmers. The United Kingdom in common with all other EC Governments and the Commission is opposed to compulsory set-aside.
§ Mr. Ieuan Wyn JonesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what sum he expects farmers to be paid per hectare of land which they take out of production under the voluntary European Community set-aside scheme.
§ Mr. MacGregorI shall be making an announcement on this and other aspects of the United Kingdom set-aside scheme as soon as our consideration of the recently decided Community regulations is complete.