§ Mr. HeathTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 15 November 2001,Official Report, columns 976–77, if she will make a statement on the operation of the pig industry restructuring support scheme, indicating (a) the total taken up, (b) the purposes for which the fund was used, (c) the amount left from the scheme unused and (d) what plans she has to use the unused sum. [17152]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Pig Industry Restructuring Scheme (PIRS) is a Government funded scheme, introduced as part of the Action Plan for Farming, designed to offer short-term assistance to pig producers. Its aim is to help pig producers reduce breeding capacity, reduce costs, overcome any competitive disadvantage and restore long term viability; PIRS consists of two elements—outgoers and ongoers.
Partly as a response to the outbreak of FMD, there were two outgoers schemes, both of which are now closed for applications. Under these schemes, a total of 937 bids were accepted, covering 150,000 sow places, at a cost of £16 million. In terms of the number of sow places removed from the herd and of the value for money, outgoers was extremely successful.
For ongoers, there were a total of 712 applications in the UK and £21.8 million has been offered to the successful applicants—at an average of £31,000 per applicant. 99 per cent. of all applications were successful; a good indication that the scheme was both straightforward and flexible.
On finance; all but £3 million of the £66 million allocated to PIRS was used to fund pig specific operations and schemes, even though PIRS itself was under subscribed. The unspent £3 million was re-allocated to a business recovery scheme from which pig producers could benefit.