§ Mr. JackTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when in December his Ministry received a request for more information from the Commission on the workings of the data based beef scheme; when he undertook to reply; and when he did reply. [28532]
Dr. John Cunningham[holding answer 9 February 1998]: I received the European Commission Scientific Steering Committee's Opinion on the Date Based Export Scheme proposal from Commissioner Bonino on 11 December 1997 with an invitation to comment.
Extensive discussions with the Commission quickly followed, and my officials formally responded to the Opinion on 29 January.