§ Dr. StrangTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many producers are entitled to hill livestock compensation allowances in Scotland; and what proportion of those are located in(a) severely disadvantaged and (b) disadvantaged areas.
§ Sir Hector Monro[holding answer 18 January 19931: My Department's information relates to the number of producers receiving hill livestock compensatory allowances. Under the 1992 scheme 17,706 producers have received HLCAs of whom 16,927 are situated in severely disadvantaged areas and 779 in the disadvantaged areas.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will investigate the discrepancy between the low farm gate prices available to Scottish hill livestock producers and the high retail prices paid by consumers in the shops.
§ Sir Hector Monro[holding answer 18 January 1993]: I have no plans to do so.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement setting out the reasons for reducing levels of hill livestock compensatory allowances; and what assistance he will give the Scottish hill livestock farmers to make up the reduction in income they will sustain as a result.
§ Sir Hector Monro[holding answer 18 January 19931: We took the decision to reduce HLCA sheep rates after a careful examination of the economic circumstances of farmers in the hills and uplands. This showed that the incomes of specialist sheep producers had risen substantially over the last two years. The reduction in HLCAs will be substantially more than offset by increases in the 1992 sheep annual premium.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many employees were engaged by Scottish hill livestock farming businesses over each of the last five years for which figures are available;
(2) what percentage of the total labour force engaged in hill livestock farming in Scotland lost their jobs over the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Sir Hector Monro[holding answer 18 January 1993]: The number of employees engaged by Scottish hill livestock businesses in each of the last five years is set out in the following table. Information is collected only on levels of employment.
Year Number of Employees Percentage Change 1988 6,880 — 1989 6,874 -0.1 1990 6,978 +1.5 1991 6,830 -2.1 1992 6,704 -1.8 Notes:
Employees include family and hired workers, full-time and part-time workers and casual/seasonal workers. Farmers and 479W spouses are excluded.
2. All figures relate to main holdings classified as Less Favoured Areas (LFA) mainly sheep, LFA mainly cattle or LFA cattle and sheep from Scottish June 1992 census data.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish details of state-financed social payments, subsidies and other schemes to provide a supplement to income, within the common agricultural policy available to hill farmers in other EC member states.
§ Sir Hector Monro[holding answer 18 January 1993]: The information is not readily available.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish the net farm income figures for Scottish hill livestock farming businesses over the past five years for which figures are available at constant prices shown as a percentage of average full time manual earnings for the same period.
§ Sir Hector Monro[holding answer 18 January 1993]: Information on net farm incomes of hill livestock farm businesses and average full-time manual earnings, in money and real terms, over the last five years is set out in the following table. Net farm income is not a measure of the direct cash earnings that farmers receive and hence is not comparable with average manual earnings.
Net farm income All hill livestock farms1 (£ per farm) Average full-time manual earnings (male) (£ per male worker) Money terms Deflated by RPI2 Money terms Deflated by RPI2 1987–88 8,685 8,685 9,344 9,344 1988–89 11,029 10,514 10,135 9,662 1989–90 8,865 7,838 10,915 9,651 1990–91 8,583 6,933 12,048 9,732 31991–92 8,207 6,265 13,057 9,967 1 Average of net farm income for less favoured area (LFA) mainly sheep, LFA mainly cattle and LFA cattle and sheep farms. 21987–88=100. Source: The Scottish Abstract of Statistics.
Scotland Within LFA boundary Within LFA boundary as a percentage of Scotland per cent. Land (hectares) 5,296,038 4,612,270 87 Occupiers 20,724 15,562 75 Source: June Agricultural Census 1992. (Occupiers of main holdings only).