asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the current size of the Common Market "beef mountain", and whether any of the beef has become or has been made inedible.

Statistics of intervention stocks in EEC countries other than the United Kingdom are not kept by my Department but by the European Commission. According to the latest information received from them, the total stocks of beef held by intervention agencies in mid-April were approximately 266,000 metric tons. It is no part of the EEC system to spoil or destroy beef in order to sustain market prices. There have, however, been occasional reports that small quantities of intervention beef have been spoiled by accident or careless handling. No such losses have occurred from stocks held by our own Intervention Board.