§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the information he has on the number of pig farmers that have gone into liquidation in Scotland in the past 12 months.
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§ Mr. McLeishTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give the total number of pupils in S5 and S6 and as a percentage of all in the age group for each year 1979–80 to 1987–88 inclusive and for each local education authority area.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe figures for pupils aged. 16 and 17 in all schools at September of each of the years for which information is available and the figures for each education authority at September 1987 are set out in the table:
library books in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools at the end of each year since 1978–79 in cash terms and in real terms, using 1987–88 prices.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe information requested, taken from local authority financial returns, is as follows:
§ Mr. Michael ForsythInformation is not available centrally on the number of pig farmers going into liquidation. The number of holdings with at least 500 pigs rose from 199 in June 1987 to 209 in June 1988.
§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of .state for Scotland if he will list the subsidies that Scottish pig farmers currently receive from the Government.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe Government pay no subsidies directly to pig farmers. However, there are 405W Community measures which assist the industry: export refunds to the USA and Canada were substantially increased in December 1987 and private storage aids were made available from February to July 1988. In addition, we secured in the course of last year's price fixing negotiations a reduction in the pigmeat monetary compensatory amount which, combined with the strengthening of sterling, has had the effect of reducing this to zero as from 1 January 1989.
§ Mrs. Margaret EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what information he has on the effect of the failure of the United States of America soya bean crop on the Scottish pig industry, and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe price of soya bean meal rose last summer because of the drought in the United States of America and this led to feed compounders increasing their pig ration prices. However, pig prices increased significantly towards the end of the year to stand at their highest level for 30 months in December 1988. This has helped to offset the effect of the increased feed prices.
Housing support grant payments 1 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 2 1988–89 3 1989–90 Edinburgh 1.1 Actual payments (£ million) — 11.269 12.518 7.869 2.328 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.2 Percentage increase on previous year — — +11.1 -37.1 -70.4 -100.0 — — — — — — 2.1 Percentage adjusted using GDP deflators (£ million) — 22.074 20.701 11.847 3.271 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.2 Percentage increase on previous year — — -6.2 -42.8 -72.4 -100.0 — — — — — — Scotland 3.1 Actual payments (£ million) — 213.4 228.2 161.9 104.6 72.1 67.2 64.2 44.5 41.9 54.6 60.4 3.2 Percentage increase on previous year — — +6.9 -29.1 -35.4 -31.1 -6.8 -4.5 -30.7 -5.7 +30.3 +10.5 4.1 Percentage adjusted using GDP deflators (£ million) — 418.0 377.4 243.7 147.0 96.9 86.0 77.9 52.2 46.8 57.4 60.4 4.2 Percentage increase on previous year — — -9.7 -35.4 -39.7 -34.1 -11.3 -9.4 -32.9 -10.5 +22.7 +5.3 1 Information not readily available. 2 Provisional. 3 Estimated.