§ Mr. SpellarTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he proposes to implement the land mines protocol and ban the export of anti-personnel land mines by the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggThe United Kingdom has always adhered to the United Nations weaponry convention, protocol II of which lays down rules for the responsible use of land mines. We signed the convention in 1981 and hope to ratify it later this year.
We are not contemplating additional measures to cover the export of anti-personnel land mines from the United Kingdom. We have not produced or exported antipersonnel mines for some time; and we believe that our current stringent controls on the export of defence equipment, which includes controls on all mines, are sufficient to stop the sale of these weapons to countries which may use them irresponsibly.