To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will take steps to bring forward from 7 January 1991 the green pound devaluation for sheepmeat.

This devaluation will come into effect at the beginning of the sheepmeat marketing year on 7 January 1991. This is the normal practice and it would be an exception to the usual rules for a devaluation to take place before the start of the marketing year. Such an exception would have to be proposed by the Commission and agreed by the other member states.