§ Mr. Albert Robertsasked the Secretary of State for Trade in considering his policy on the admission of goods, including leather goods, containing sperm oil, what methods are available to establish whether or not sperm oil is included in such goods; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. CryerI have been asked to reply.
As I stated in my reply to a Question from the hon. Member for Shrewsbury (Sir J. Langford-Holt) on 5th April—[Vol. 947, c. 126–7]—I am currently examining the feasibility of introducing measures to require that goods containing or treated with whale products are so marked.
Should such measures be introduced there might be some difficulty for manufacturers of downstream products, as goods finally sold might be four or five places removed from the original treatment with whale products. In the case of whale product treated goods being imported to the United Kingdom, I understand that it might be difficult to determine whether whale products had been used during manufacture or not. In 230W such a case, Her Majesty's Customs and Excise would refer the goods in question to the Laboratory of the Government Chemist for analysis, but in practical terms this would be done only where there were firm grounds for suspicion that import regulations had been contravened.