§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in the light of a recent Answer to the effect that they keep no record of the export of pesticides which are banned from use in this country, they will now take steps to do so, and then to ban such export in order to avoid harm to the population of countries with lower environmental standards than those of the United Kingdom.
§ Lord Young of GraffhamNo, but the Government are anxious to ensure a responsible attitude to the export and use of dangerous chemicals and are already party to alternative international arrangements to that end. Since 1986 the UK has participated fully in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) voluntary export notification scheme. Within the scheme, information is given to other Governments of any decision to ban or severely restrict the domestic use of a pesticide or other chemical, and of any known subsequent proposed first export of the substance to the country concerned.
In addition, a European Community regulation came into force last month under which member states are required to take similar action in respect of 21 named substances. Several of these were already on the longer UK national list being used for the UNEP scheme.
1028WAThe UNEP scheme itself is now being strengthened to incorporate prior informed consent. Under this, importing countries will be able to give positive agreement on whether or not they wish to accept the substances so covered, so that preventive action can then be taken by the exporting country where appropriate.