Payments made to sheep farmers in the past 12 months related to entitlements under the 2000 ewe premium and 2000 sheep headage scheme in disadvantaged areas. No payments have been made in respect of the 2001 ewe premium scheme. The sheep headage scheme in disadvantaged areas has been replaced this year with a new area based compensatory allowance scheme.
The position is that 40,368 sheep producers were paid a total of £77.6 million including rural world premia of £18.2 million under the 2000 ewe premium scheme. In addition 26,209 of those producers in disadvantaged areas were paid a total of £21.7 million under the 2000 sheep headage scheme.