§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the reasons for the transfer of responsibility for the Oslo Commission from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to the Department of the Environment.
§ Mr. YeoResponsibility for policy on the questions covered by the Oslo Commission (principally relating to208W dumping of materials at sea) has not been transferred: this remains with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. What has been transferred is responsibility for the payment of the annual contribution to the commission's costs. This follows from the merger of the budgets of the Oslo Commission and the Paris Commission (for policy on which the Department of the Environment is responsible) in the run-up to the establishment of a single commission when the 1992 convention on the protection of the marine environment of the north-east Atlantic comes into force.