§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much was paid in the last 12 months to land owners for putting land into set-aside; and if he will make a statement. [143145]
§ Ms QuinIn the 12 months to 30 November 2000, payments for land in the UK in set-aside claimed under the Arable Area Payments Scheme (AAPS) totalled £144,733,633, including the first two instalments of agrimoney compensation in respect of 1999.
It should be noted that under scheme rules claimants do not necessarily have to be land owners and that it is not possible to identify separately those who are. In addition, because of the timing of agrimonetary compensation and the fact that EU regulations allowed payments in 1999 to start one month earlier than in 2000, the total paid in this period may not be fully representative of similar periods at other times.