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Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Alan Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the PFI contracts entered into by Agencies, non-departmental public bodies and other organisations funded by his Department, indicating (a) their date of commencement, (b) their value, (c) if they have been subject to claw-back entitlement to share in savings arising from refinancing. [133424]

Mr. Chris Smith: My Department has not itself entered into any PFI contracts. I informed my right hon. Friend of the PFI contract within our Executive Agency, The Royal Parks Agency, on 17 July. I will write to my right hon. Friend, with details of PFI projects within my non-departmental bodies, as soon as they are available, placing copies of my letter in the Library of the House.

Football Taskforce

Mr. Maxton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he intends to announce the Government's response to the report of the Football Task Force, entitled Football: Commercial Issues. [133863]

Mr. Chris Smith: I am finalising the terms of the Government's response to the Football Task Force, and I shall make a full announcement shortly. The announcement will include details of the establishment

28 Jul 2000 : Column: 1114W

of the Independent Football Commission. I shall place copies of all documents published in respect of the announcement in the Library of the House.

National Lottery

Ms Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what action he intends to take to reduce the costs to organisations of making National Lottery funding applications. [133864]

Mr. Chris Smith: I have directed the independent Quality Efficiency and Standards Team (QUEST) to look at the costs of making applications for Lottery grants and consider how these costs could be contained without compromising the demands of proper accountability in decisions about how to spend public money. QUEST will publish Phase I of its report, which focuses on applications for grants of up to £100,000, early next month. Copies of the report will be available in the Library of the House.

English Sports Council

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he intends to undertake a review of the English Sports Council. [133865]

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Mr. Chris Smith: As part of my Department's programme of quinquennial reviews of its public bodies, I have today announced the start of our Review of the English Sports Council.

The English Sports Council (ESC) is responsible for developing and maintaining the infrastructure of sport in England, for distributing National Lottery funds for sport in England and for five National Sports Centres. The Review of the ESC will include an evaluation of its role and functions and how those functions can best be carried out, and a review of the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of the way in which the ESC delivers services to its users. We aim to complete the Review before the end of the financial year. Copies of the Terms of Reference have been placed in the Libraries of the House.

Listed Buildings

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what powers he has to take action against local authorities which fail to carry out their responsibilities for listed buildings in their ownership. [133694]

Mr. Alan Howarth: I will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested and will place a copy of my letter in the Libraries of the House.

AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD

Farm Subsidies

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what percentage contribution farming made to the English gross domestic product (a) before and (b) after deduction for subsidies in each of the last three years. [133232]

Ms Quin: The information requested is given in the table.

Agriculture's share of total gross domestic product(England) Percentage

	Including subsidies	Excluding subsidies
1997	1.1	0.8
1998(1)	0.9	0.7
1999(1)	0.9	0.6

⁽¹⁾ provisional

Source:

Aggregate Agricultural Account

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many headage payments have been made for sheep in each of the last five years; and what percentage of the sheep were not marketed. [133230]

Ms Quin: The table shows the number of sheep in England on which headage payments were made in the last five years. Most of the sheep on which the Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance was paid would also have had Sheep Annual Premium paid on them.

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Both these payments are made in respect of breeding ewes rather than on lambs. Most will therefore be kept for a number of years and we have no information on whether or not they might have been marketed in the year of claim for payment.

Million

	Sheep Annual Premium	Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance (Sheep)
1995	8.5	3.3
1996	8.3	3.3
1997	8.2	3.3
1998	8.3	3.4
1999	8.3	3.5

Sugar Prices

Mr. Paice: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what the UK sugar support prices were, expressed as intervention price plus storage cost levy, in (a) nominal and (b) real terms for each year since 1980. [132526]

Ms Quin [holding answer 25 July 2000]: The information requested is contained in the following table:

Year	Ecu/euro	Nominal terms	Real terms, at 1980 prices
1980	474	293	293
1981	517	320	286
1982	569	352	290
1983	589	365	287
1984	589	365	273
1985	596	382	270
1986	594	401	274
1987	594	429	281
1988	589	439	275
1989	584	457	265
1990	567	482	255
1991	567	512	256
1992	567	527	254
1993	570	649	309
1994	565	639	296
1995	683	578	259
1996	672	564	247
1997	667	486	206
1998	667	459	188
1999	667	439	177

Note:

UK effective support price for sugar = UK intervention price plus storage levy. Prices per tonne as at 1 July each year, expressed in ecu/euros in column 1 and in £ in columns 2 and 3.

Dairy Quotas

Mr. Breed: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what discussions he has had with his European counterparts about establishing a legal cross-border market for dairy quotas. [131818]

Ms Quin [holding answer 21 July 2000]: We have considered in the past the establishment of a legal cross-border market for milk quotas with the Commission and our European partners. There is no real support for this. Some member states regard the retention of quota in certain less favoured areas as a vital means of maintaining rural employment and are therefore reluctant to support

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such a move. Others are not prepared to contemplate the transfer of national assets to producers in another member state. The Commission has no enthusiasm for this either.

Farm Incomes

Mr. Evans: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what the average net income was in real terms for farmers in each year since 1994. [131645]

Ms Quin [holding answer 24 July 2000]: The information requested is given in the table.

Average net farm income--England, full-time farms(in real terms at 1999 prices) £/farm

Year	Net farm income
1994-95	33,200
1995-96	43,400
1996-97	32,500
1997-98	14,000
1998-99	9,700
1999-2000(1)	8,500

⁽¹⁾ Provisional

Source:

Farm Business Survey

Farming Profits

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the average level of profits made by (a) dairy farmers, (b) hill farmers and (c) beef farmers in each of the last five years. [132273]

Ms Quin: The average level of net farm income on dairy farms, cattle and sheep farms in the LFA (Less Favoured Areas) and lowland cattle and sheep farms over the last five years, were as follows:

Net farm income by type of farm in the United Kingdom£ per full-time farm

March-February	Dairy	LFA cattle and sheep	Lowland cattle and sheep
1995-96	33,900	14,300	9,200
1996-97	28,000	14,200	6,800
1997-98	17,700	7,300	700
1998-99	10,300	3,600	-500
1999-2000(1)	8,000	2,500	1,500

⁽¹⁾ Forecast

Note:

Income figures for specialist beef farms are not available

Source:

Farm Business Survey

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