Whether it has made any representations to Her Majesty's Government concerning the take-up of EU agrimonetary compensation for Scottish far…

As agrimoney payments must be made on a UK-wide basis, I have raised the matter with my counterparts in the other UK administrations. I strongly supported the case for payment both in principle and on practical grounds. However, the decision to pay or not is a reserved matter and can only be made by the UK Government who took the view that further agrimoney expenditure could not be justified, bearing in mind the many competing demands on the public purse.Since 1997 Scottish farmers have received agrimoney compensation worth some £140 million, including £30 million in 2001-02.