asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been the decrease, in real terms, in agricultural income from hill and upland sheep since (a) 1979 and (b) 1978.

Information is not available for hill and upland sheep alone since the majority of such sheep are on farms which also have cattle.Estimates of net income on hill and upland farms generally in the current year (1980–81) are necessarily very tentative at this stage, because the main autumn sales of hill livestock are not yet complete in all areas, Present indications are that net incomes in real terms have improved in some areas, but declined in others, compared with 1979–80 but that in all areas they remain below the 1978–79 level.