§ Lord Joplingasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs intends to apologise to farmers in the Thirsk area for her statements in the House of Commons on 12 November 2001 (HC Deb, col. 578), which were admitted to be inaccurate by Lord Whitty in a Written Answer on 20 December 2001 (WA 85). [HL2267]
§ Lord WhittyThe Private Secretary to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State wrote on 10 January 2002 to the National Farmers' Union in Thirsk to explain that the figures in the Secretary of State's statement in the House of Commons on 12 November 2001 related to the North Yorkshire region as a whole rather than to the Thirsk area and that there had been no intention to mislead in quoting them.