§ Mr. MarlowTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 2 February,Official Report, column 134, whether the requirement of the Commission for agricultural returns to be in hectares applies to both (a) within the United Kingdom and (b) between the United Kingdom and European Commission; and if he will set out the text which gives effect to this requirement.
§ Mr. CurryCouncil directive on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to units of measurement No. 80/181 EC as amended by Council directive No. 89/617 EC states
507WWhereas the laws which regulate the use of units of measurement in the Member States differ from one Member State to another and as a result hinder trade; whereas, in these circumstances, it is necessary to harmonise laws, regulations and administrative provisions in order to overcome such obstacles;It goes on, in chapter 1, section 4 of the annex, to specify the units to be used in determining the area of farm land in the following terms:
Units and names of units permitted in specialised fields only Quantity Name Unit Symbol Value Vergency of optical dioptre* 1 dioptre = 1m-1 Mass of precious stones metric carat 1 metric carat =2 x 10-4 kg Area of farmland and building land are a 1 a=102 m2 Mass per unit length of textile yarns and threads tex tex 1 tex = 10-4kg m-1 Note: The prefixes listed in 1.3 may be used in conjunction with the above units. The multiple 102 a is, however, called a 'hectare'.
This directive is directly applicable in all Member States and therefore affects all returns completed with the United Kingdom and returns provided by the United Kingdom for the European Commission.