§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for what reasons he ceased to publish the Command Paper entitled "Annual Review of Agriculture"; what information provided there is not included in the replacement volume entitled "Agriculture in the United Kingdom", published annually; and what matter in that publication could be, or was unsuited to, publication in the former Command Paper.
§ Mr. CurryThe then Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food announced on 5 December 1988 that the results of the annual review of agriculture would no longer be published as a White Paper. Before our accession to the European Community, the annual review led to the determination of commodity price guarantees for the coming year, which were published as part of the White Paper. Since our accession the emphasis has shifted towards the annual negotiation of agricultural prices in the European Community. The annual review White Paper has effectively become a compendium of agricultural statistics and it was considered that it was no longer appropriate to publish these in a White Paper.
572WAll the statistical information previously contained in the annual review White Papers is now published annually in "Agriculture in the United Kingdom", together with some additional material, and all the information in the current publication could have been published in the previous format.