To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many and what percentage of the workforce in agriculture hold vocational qualifications at NVQ Level 3 or higher in Northern Ireland. [128277]

Information is not available on numbers in the total agricultural labour force with vocational qualifications at NVQ Level 3 or higher. The information that is available is summarised as follows.The social survey of farmers and farm families (excluding hired workers) carried out in 2000–01 indicated that:7,029 farmers and regular family workers on family farms (18.9 per cent. of total) had general qualifications (excl. apprenticeships) at or above NVQ Level 3 or equivalent—as well as vocational qualifications in all disciplines, this includes "A" Levels and other non-vocational qualifications;9,347 farmers and regular family workers on family farms (25.1 per cent. of total) had general qualifications (incl. apprenticeships) at or above NVQ Level 3 or equivalent;2,131 farmers and regular family workers on family farms (5.7 per cent. of total) had agricultural qualifications at or above NVQ Level 3 or equivalent.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many business development training places for farmers there were in each Northern Ireland constituency in the last year for which figures are available. [R] [128278]

During the 2002–03 financial year a total of 3,617 business development training places were available for farmers on the Good Business Sense training programme.The management information system operated by the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise cannot allocate the total places available according to Northern Ireland constituency. The following table illustrates the breakdown according to county.