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Beef Imports (Botswana)

Mrs. Peacock: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what amount of (a) beef and (b) beef products in the United Kingdom are currently imported from Botswana. [1659]

Mr. Baldry [holding answer 1 November 1996]: Imports of (a) bovine meat and (b) prepared and preserved bovine meat into the United Kingdom from Botswana, as recorded in "Overseas Trade Statistics" are, as follows:

	1994		1995		1996
	£000	Tonnes	£000	Tonnes	£000	Tonnes
Bovine meat	12,457	4,058	17,682	6,655	8,996	3,488
Prepared and preserved bovine meat	1,931	777	1,945	723	281	116

All data are provisional.

Basking Shark Fishery

Ms Walley: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the commercial value of the basking shark fishery as assessed under the EC-Norwegian exchange agreement. [1151]

Mr. Baldry: Norway has a 100 tonne basking shark liver quota. No assessment of the commercial value of the fishery has been made. However, as nothing was taken in 1991, 1992, 1994 or 1995 and only 5.8 tonnes in 1993, the value is not likely to be great.

Ms Walley: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the fisheries for basking sharks in United Kingdom waters. [1150]

Mr. Baldry: The Government are not aware of any current fishery for basking sharks in United Kingdom waters.

4 Nov 1996 : Column: 315

Public Relations

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much his Department spent on (a) advertising, (b) public relations and (c) entertainment in each of the last five financial years. [1276]

Mr. Boswell: Expenditure on (a) advertising, (b) public relations and (c) official hospitality in each of the last five financial years is as follows:

	Advertising	Public relations	Official hospitality
Year	£	£	£
1991-92	441,877	4,174,427	64,852
1992-93	191,738	4,225,228	72,986
1993-94	269,821	4,379,768	79,758
1994-95	140,700	4,820,603	64,092
1995-96	144,781	5,280,010	59,646

Female Staff

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many women are currently employed by his Department; and what proportion this is of the total. [1259]

Mr. Boswell: As at 1 October 1996 the total number of women employed by the Department is 3,287. This represents 48.3 percent of the total number of people employed.

Child Care

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proportion of the (a) women who are mothers and (b) men who are fathers who are employed by his Department have received assistance from the Department with child care. [1293]

Mr. Boswell: Although the Ministry and its executive agencies collect statistical information on staff employed, this does not include information on the parental status of individual staff. It would not be appropriate to request this information and it would be difficult to justify its collection.

The Ministry and its agencies support 120 nursery places and holiday play schemes are run at a number of sites across the country. Some sites provide information for staff on local child care opportunities. In addition, staff may seek reimbursement of certain additional child care costs associated with a break in the normal working routine such as attendance at training courses.

Farmers' Incomes

Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the changes in farmers' incomes in real terms for each month since January 1990; and if he will make a statement.[1588]

Mr. Boswell: Data on farm incomes are collected through the farm business survey on an annual basis. They are published in "Farm Incomes in the United Kingdom"--1994-95 being the latest--a copy of which is held in the Library of the House.

4 Nov 1996 : Column: 316

Cattle Cull

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps have been taken to ensure that cattle producers in Wales have equal access to the authorised abattoirs in England under the 30-month cattle cull with producers from other cases; and if he will make a statement. [1753]

Mr. Baldry: ABP Shrewsbury and Duggins (Bromsgrove), the two designated abattoirs to which I assume the hon. Member is referring, are required to source a predetermined number of cattle from Wales each week. No other area of the country has this guaranteed and preferential access to the two abattoirs concerned.

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what estimate he has of the numbers of cattle over 30 months awaiting slaughter; and how this estimate was arrived at. [1955]

Mr. Baldry [holding answer 1 November 1996]: A sample survey by telephone was conducted in September to estimate the number of cattle on farms awaiting slaughter under the over-30-month scheme. The survey indicated that a backlog was then of the order of 400,000 animals in the United Kingdom. We have since introduced a registration system for animals awaiting slaughter which will establish more precisely the size of the backlog.

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the benefits of a full written survey of farmers to ascertain precise numbers of cattle over 30 months awaiting slaughter. [1956]

Mr. Baldry [holding answer 1 November 1996]: The registration system for cattle, which are awaiting slaughter as at 2 November under the over-30-month scheme, will enable priority to be given to such animals as from 4 November.

Arable Area Payments Scheme

Mr. Tipping: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list by county the payments made under the arable payments scheme in (a) 1994 and (b) 1995. [1620]

Mr. Baldry: The table gives the total arable area payments claimed in 1994 and 1995 on land situated in each county of England. The total amounts paid will have been slightly lower because of reductions made for various reasons. However, since such reductions normally have to be calculated on the basis of the total claim, which may include land in more than one county, it is not possible to give figures for the total amounts paid on a county basis.

In preparing the answer to this question the Department became aware that a similar question tabled by the hon. Member last year had been answered incorrectly--Official Report, 1 November 1995, columns 330-31. The payment rates used to calculate the reply to last year's question were those for 1995-96, but should have been those for 1994-95. The reply to the present question is based on the appropriate payment rate for each year and I should like to apologise to the hon. Member for the error in the earlier reply.

4 Nov 1996 : Column: 317

	1994	1995
	£	£
Avon	3,834,873	4,912,074
Bedfordshire	16,332,344	20,133,849
Berkshire	9,436,680	12,566,987
Buckinghamshire	13,990,699	18,206,193
Cambridgeshire	49,220,159	61,047,000
Cheshire	6,238,759	7,682,995
Cleveland	3,895,782	4,915,710
Cornwall	8,913,812	11,561,419
Cumbria	3,082,104	4,388,086
Derbyshire	7,847,602	9,933,686
Devonshire	14,784,740	18,550,765
Dorset	14,158,884	17,556,992
Durham	10,048,182	13,237,863
Essex	46,408,137	60,167,194
Gloucestershire	21,198,680	26,464,918
Greater London	1,124,506	1,491,671
Greater Manchester	1,266,424	1,579,463
Hampshire	27,851,347	36,120,786
Hereford and Worcester	23,409,796	30,243,714
Hertfordshire	17,029,233	21,907,019
Humberside	48,579,248	63,134,365
Isle of Wight	2,410,416	3,173,252
Kent	29,148,718	37,661,073
Lancashire	4,101,642	5,481,222
Leicestershire	25,293,521	33,710,741
Lincolnshire	84,091,244	109,053,918
Merseyside	2,368,336	2,830,996
Norfolk	53,904,001	68,677,939
Northamptonshire	28,335,993	37,555,697
Northumberland	21,516,082	29,355,781
Nottinghamshire	22,962,444	29,072,460
Oxfordshire	29,288,191	39,563,388
Shropshire	19,214,700	24,926,532
Somerset	11,739,320	14,331,353
Staffordshire	11,406,725	14,849,617
Suffolk	45,862,431	57,980,137
Surrey	3,644,871	4,686,336
East Sussex	7,762,038	9,657,012
West Sussex	11,810,644	14,302,526
Tyne and Wear	2,176,892	2,980,858
Warwickshire	19,858,598	25,219,284
West Midlands	1,350,564	1,709,376
Wiltshire	29,138,065	36,309,115
North Yorkshire	50,605,566	64,251,530
South Yorkshire	11,150,061	14,004,739
West Yorkshire	5,934,395	7,659,284

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