§ 1994. Mr. TylerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the number of meetings held, the secretarial and advisory arrangements, the budgeted and actual expenditure and the subjects of the reports and submissions produced by each of the hill farming advisory committees in(a) 1992, (b) 1993 and (c)
§ Mr. JackThe Hill Farming Advisory Committee for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is chaired by my noble friend the Earl Howe. The committee advises Ministers on hill farming matters. It does not produce reports or submissions and my Department provides the secretariat.
The following table shows the number of meetings held, the budgeted expenditure and actual expenditure for the years 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Number of meetings Budgeted expenditure £ Actual expenditure £ 1992 2 7,000 7,000 1993 2 9,000 8,500 1994 1 4,000 3,000 Note:
Costs do not include MAFF staff time.
§ Mr. TylerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the functions and objectives of(a) the consumers committees, (b) the agricultural dwelling house advisory committees, (c) the hill farming advisory committees, (d) the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and (e) the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee.
§ Mr. JackThe functions of the consumers' committees for Great Britain, for England and Wales and for Scotland are laid down in section 19 of the Agricultural Marketing Act 1958. The committees consider and report to Agriculture Ministers on the effect of approved schemes on consumers of the products concerned. Currently, there are approved schemes for potatoes and wool only.
The agricultural dwelling house advisory committees' functions and objectives are to give information and impartial advice to local house authorities on the agricultural need and urgency for the re-housing of agricultural tied cottage occupants so as to make their vacated accommodation available to incoming agricultural workers.
The hill farming advisory committees' functions and objectives are to advise the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State for Wales on the exercise of their powers under the Hill Farming Act 1946 and on any matter relating to farming in the less-favoured areas that may be referred to the committee by them.
The Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee has been given the responsibility of maintaining an 866W overview of research into the spongiform encephalopathies as well as advising the government on all matters relating to the spongiform encephalopathies.
The functions and objectives are of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides are published annually in its annual report, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.
§ 1994. Mr. TylerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the number of meetings held, the secretarial and advisory arrangements, the budgeted and actual expenditure and the subjects of the reports and submissions produced by each of the agricultural dwelling house advisory committees in(a) 1992, (b) 1993 and (c)
§ Mr. JackAgricultural dwelling house advisory committees, which are statutory bodies under the Rent Agriculture Act 1976, are convened in England,—separate parallel arrangements apply in Wales—as required, by the chairman of the local agricultural wages committee. Secretarial support is provided by MAFF staff from the Ministry's regional service centres. In most instances, the Agricultural Development Advisory Committee provides a technical appraisal of the farm business involved.
The budgeted and actual expenditure for these committees is as follows:
Expenditure 1992–93 £ 1993–94 £ 1994–95 £ Budgeted 43,304 37,000 35,000 Actual 26,243 31,888 117,059 1 To 31 October 1994. The budgeted costs and actual expenditure in respect of the ADAS appraisals, on a financial year basis, were:
1992–93 £ 1993–94 £ 1994–95 £ Budgeted Expenditure 1— 180,000 126,000 Actual Costs — 154,400 266,750 1 Internal recharging for these services did not apply. No separate budget allocation was therefore made. 2 To 31 October 1994. The remit of the committees is to give confidential advice to local housing authorities on the agricultural need for and urgency of re-housing applications. The following information summarises the conclusions reached by the committees on the cases examined:
1992–93 1993–94 1994–951 Agricultural need identified 165 146 68 No agricultural need identified 25 29 15 1 To 31 October 1994. On the urgency of the application, immediate rehousing was advised in the following numbers of cases where an agricultural need had been identified:
Number 1992–93 40 1993–94 32 1994–951 18 1 To 31 October 1994.