§ Lord Pearson of Rannochasked Her Majesty's Government:
What proportion of the£7.5 million spent on decommissioning United Kingdom fishing boats in 1993, of the £8.8 million spent in 1994 and of the£11.9 million to be spent in 1995, is provided by the European Community and what proportion by the United Kingdom taxpayer.
Lord LucasThe 1993 decommissioning scheme attracted some £5.4 million in Community reimbursement on expenditure of £7.8 million. The 1994 scheme attracted some £4.5 million on expenditure of £8.8 million. We cannot yet accurately estimate receipts for the 1995 scheme, since final figures will only be124WA available once the scheme has been completed. This is because the amount eligible for reimbursement depends on the age and size of the vessel decommissioned.
Under current Community budgetary arrangements, our taxpayers effectively finance roughly 70 per cent. of these reimbursements.
Therefore the cost to the UK taxpayer was about 80 per cent. and 85 per cent. of the decommissioning costs in the first two years in question.