asked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection what would be the effect on the food section of the retail price index in the event of the price per live hundredweight of beef rising to the EEC intervention level.

My hon. Friend will recall that the support system for beef has been renegotiated. United Kingdom beef producers' incomes are now supported directly by variable premiums akin to deficiency payments. Under this sysstem intervention takes place only at levels below current average United Kingdom market prices. If the support arrangements had not been renegotiated and were we operating the intervention system at full CAP prices, the effect would probably have been to make the retail price index about one-third of 1 per cent. higher than it now is.