HC Deb 26 October 1993 vol 230 cc632-3W
Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) when he expects to meet representatives on the Scottish National Farmers Union to discuss proposals to mitigate financial losses that may result from the increased amount of land set aside;

(2) what proposals he has to compensate farmers who can prove they have suffered loss as a result of changes to the rules on set-aside.

Sir Hector Monro

[holding answer 25 October 1993]: My right hon. Friend and I fully recognise that any special set-aside requirement will be unwelcome to arable farmers. The EC regulations governing the arable area payments scheme, however, stipulate such an additional one-year requirement where an overshoot over base area has occurred; and they make it clear that this additional requirement is uncompensated. As I explained to representatives of the National Farmers Union of Scotland when I met them on 13 October, we cannot vary the total Scottish base area, which reflects statistics already lodged with the EC Commission and to which each member state is committed. Nor can we adjust in mid-course the area base control regime to which the Government are committed. The scheme is specifically designed to penalise areas which are in excess of base areas on which arable aid is claimed.

The additional set-aside requirement resulting from the overshoot should be seen in the context of the very significant continuing benefits to Scottish arable farmers and to the rural economy generally of the arable area payments scheme under the common agricultural policy. Notwithstanding the penalty, farmers in the non-LFA area alone will receive some £80 million in arable area payments in 1993, with a further £12.5 million in payments in the LFA area. Moreover, the reduction in arable area payments to non-LFA farmers resulting from the overshoot in fact broadly equates with the global return generated from the additional land, over base area, brought into cropping this year.