Written question asked by James Paice (Conservative) on Tuesday, 12 February 2002, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 26 February 2002. It was answered by Elliot Morley (Labour) on Tuesday, 26 February 2002 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the proportion of registered holdings which are farmed by people other than the owner or tenant under (a) contract farming, (b) share farming and (c) similar arrangements; and what the proportion was (i) five and (ii) 10 years ago. - Inc figures and fact that we have no reliable data to show the proportion of registered holdinga which are farmed by people other than the owner or tenant under contract farming arrangements.

Answer: Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the proportion of registered holdings which are farmed by people other than the owner or tenant under (a) contract farming, (b) share farming and (c) similar arrangements; and what the proportion was (i) five and (ii) 10 years ago. [36586] Mr. Morley: We have no reliable data to show the proportion of registered holdings which are farmed by people other than the owner or tenant under contract farming arrangements. So far as share farming is concerned the Farm Business Survey for 2000-01 showed that 35 of the 2,183 `full-time' farm businesses surveyed in England were involved in share farming. This is equivalent to 1.6 per cent. of the farm businesses in the survey. Results from the June 2000 census (which included full and part-time holdings) in England showed that 0.7 per cent. of respondents were involved in share farming, and the total area share farmed was 1.0 per cent. of the respondents' total area. No data on share farming are available for five or 10 years ago. We have no data for holdings farmed under similar arrangements.

Secondary information