§ Mr. TylerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his latest estimate of the number of staff and contracted consultants that will be required in the United Kingdom to administer schemes under the reformed common agricultural policy.
§ Mr. CurryInformation on administration—staff numbers and running costs—for MAFF and the Intervention Board is set out in the departmental report on the Government's expenditure plans 1993–94 to 1995–96 which was published earlier this month. A copy has been placed in the Library. It is not possible to allocate a figure to the number of departmental staff purely working on duties connected with the common agricultural policy, including the reformed schemes, as the work of the Department is not recorded in a way which would enable the extraction of this figure without disproportionate cost. Almost all the staff in the Intervention Board executive agency, approximately 1,000, are directly involved in administering schemes under the CAP. Furthermore the Agriculture Departments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also have responsibilities for certain CAP schemes. It is possible that contracted consultants may be employed to deal with some of the work involved with the CAP. The extent of such involvement has not yet been decided.