HC Deb 14 March 1989 vol 149 cc209-10W
Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the outcome of the meeting between EEC Environment Ministers and African Environment Ministers held in Dakar in January to discuss the international trade and regulation of hazardous waste.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The conference on hazardous wastes held in Dakar on 26 and 27 January this year issued a communiqué requesting the Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity, in collaboration with, among others, the executive director of the United Nations environment programme, to assist African countries to establish appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and control of movement of nuclear and industrial wastes in Africa and calling on all countries to participate in the diplomatic conference expected to be held in Basle later this month under the auspices of the United Nations environment programme to negotiate a global convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes.

Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on progress in the United Nations on the development of an international convention to regulate hazardous and toxic waste disposal.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

A diplomatic conference is expected to convene in Basle later this month for the purpose of adopting and signing the global convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes.