HC Deb 30 January 1997 vol 289 cc351-2W
Mr. Martyn Jones

To ask the right hon. Member for Selby, representing the Church Commissioners, if he will estimate the number of tenant farmers farming an area of land less than 20 hectares leased by the Church Commissioners; and if he will make a statement. [12782]

Mr. Alison

No audited figures are available, but, according to the commissioners' records, they have 162 tenanted areas of farm land of less than 20 hectares.

Mr. Jones

To ask the right hon. Member for Selby, representing the Church Commissioners, what factors underlie the defining of a farm for the purpose of calculating the number of tenant farmers as an area of land over 20 hectares; and if he will make a statement. [12781]

Mr. Alison

As at 31 December 1995, the commissioners owned more than 55,000 hectares of agricultural land. For reasons of administrative convenience, the figure of 20 hectares has been used since 1973 for defining the minimum size of a farm for statistical purposes.