§ Mr. StunellTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what factors he took into account in changing the minimum land holding for grant qualification by introducing the hill farm allowance. [156865]
§ Ms QuinIn deciding to increase the minimum area requirement from 3 ha to 10 ha we took account of comments received during public consultation and of an independent evaluation of the previous hill livestock compensatory allowance scheme. This suggested that very small farms are less in need of aid than farms in higher size categories. They are less likely to be full-time farm businesses and have a significantly higher proportion of occupiers with off-farm income.