To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for how many of its own employees his Department proposes to pay the poll tax; what will be the cost to public funds; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has increased the good local practice element of payments to 188 full-time farm workers employed at the ADAS experimental husbandry farms and the horticultural stations in the British Society of Horticultural Research by amounts sufficient to retain our competitive position as employers of farm labour in the respective localities. The additional cost involved will be about £44,000 in the current financial year.