To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the effect of the Common Agricultural Policy on the amount spent by an average family in the UK on food in one year. (132810)

[holding answer 20 April 2007]: We can calculate an estimate of the UK consumer cost of the Common Agricultural Policy by comparing the difference between UK and world prices for agricultural products and applying that difference to the volume of UK consumption. On that basis the cost of higher spending on food to a notional family of four in 2004 was approximately £260. Our provisional estimate for 2005 is approximately £220.