§ 3.8 p.m.
§ Lord SKELMERSDALEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question waas as follows
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government why Her Majesty's Customs and Excise figures for the import and export of endangered species of animals and plants differ from those on the licences issued by the Department of the Environment wildlife section.
1081§ Baroness STEDMANMy Lords, Customs and Excise figures for imports and exports do not generally differentiate endangered species from the other items under any particular Customs heading, and are not comparable with Department of the Environment figures for licences issued. Also, the issue of licences does not indicate actual imports or exports, as many licences are only partially used or not at all.
§ Lord SKELMERSDALEMy Lords, while I am grateful to the noble Baroness for that reply, may I ask whether she is aware that one of the great problems is that very often licences are not, in fact, asked for by the Department of Customs and Excise? Therefore, the imports in question are presumably not regarded by her Department as having taken place when the licences are returned unused at the end of the period.
§ Baroness STEDMANYes, my Lords. There are discrepancies. The Department of the Environment is the Department which issues the licences saying that it is right and proper for the importer to import the items he wants. The Customs and Excise require the licences when the imports are received, in order to keep a check on trade. For example, from 1st January to 31st December 1977, the statistics are only available nine months later, because each of the licences lasts for nine months, as the noble Lord will know from his own experience. In that period, licences were issued to import 1,319,587 cyclamen—not all, I hope, to the noble Lord himself. They have at this moment expired, but completed licences and expired licences have been returned for only 19,542 cyclamen. Some of the licences were not taken up, some of the imports were not made and some of the licences were not returned when they had expired. So the figures will never match.