§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the cost of the ban on beef on the bone to(a) the beef industry, (b) local government and (c) central Government from the date the ban came in to force until the date the Minister announced the lifting of the ban. [101736]
§ Mr. Nick Brown[holding answer 7 December 1999]: No estimate has been made of the actual costs incurred by the beef industry. This would involve a multifactorial analysis which would depend on many untestable assumptions. It is doubtful if authoritative estimates could be made.
Nor is it possible to identify reliably the costs of the controls to local or central government.