asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in the light of the failure to adjust the strict standards for beef going into intervention which has caused a considerable reduction in beef prices, whether he will further use the power available to him to relax the British intervention standards immediately.

No. Prices for carcase beef are at about the same level as they were last year. I am keeping the situation under close review; but I do not believe that changes in the intervention standards would materially improve producers' returns.