§ Mr. Robert HicksTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will state the United Kingdom Government's response to the European Commission's proposal to limit the amount of total compensatory payment to individual farm holdings in lesss favoured areas; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. CurryThe Government remain strongly opposed to the principle of limits based on farm size. Such limits are particularly difficult to justify in less favoured areas, since there is no correlation between the size of a farm and the 47W degree of severity of the permanent natural handicap. I have left the Agriculture Council in no doubt as to the strength of my views on the Commission's current proposals for hill livestock compensatory allowances.