To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the total amount of support payments paid out in the Highlands and Islands development board area in the most recent year for which there are figures, in respect of (a) sheep and (b) cattle.

Expenditure on relevant agricultural schemes within the Highlands and Islands development board area is as follows.

	Sheep £'000	Cattle £'000
Hill livestock compensatory allowances1	9,471	8,340
Sheep annual premium1	9,484	n/a
Suckler cow premium1	n/a	5,230
Beef special premium2	n/a	350
	18,955	13,920
1 1989 scheme expenditure.
2 Financial year 1989–90.
n/a Not available.

The Highlands and Islands development board itself provides some assistance to the livestock sector: in 1989–90 this amounted to £2,212,000.The sheep and cattle sectors also benefit from intervention market support and the sheep variable premium. It is not possible to disaggregate this support to specific areas.