§ Ms. WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 25 April,Official Report, column 255, whether he will publish the membership of his Department's eco-labelling advisory group.
§ Mr. Heathcoat-AmoryI am pleased to announce that Sir Kenneth Durham, former chairman of Unilever plc and Kingfisher plc, has agreed to chair this important advisory group. Sir Kenneth is supremely well qualified to take on this work, having a wealth of experience in both manufacturing and retailing.
We are no less fortunate in the members who have agreed to serve on the group. They are: Ms Julia Hailes (SustainAbility); Mrs. Dorothy Mackenzie (Michael Peters Group, Brand New); Lady Wilcox (chairman of the National Consumers Council); Ms. Pippa Hyam (environmentalist): Mr. Steve Robinson (Environment Council); Mr. Ian Chalk (Reedpack Ltd); Mr. Kenneth Miles (Incorporated Society of British Advertising); Dr. Charles Suckling (scientist and member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution); Mr. Peter Green (Chief Trading Standards Officer for West Sussex); Mr. Richard Macrory (barrister, reader in environmental law, Imperial college, London); Mr. Nigel Whittaker (Kingfisher plc), Dr. John Adsetts (Albright and Wilson); Mr. Mike Rosen (Sainsburys); and Mr. John Jack (IBM).
They have the challenging task of advising my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for the Environment 259W and for Trade and Industry on setting up an effective and workable scheme of labelling for environmentally more benign products, in line with the principles set out in my right hon. Friend's statement of 9 January. An important part of this task will be to advise on the UK input to negotiations with our European partners on the establishment of a single European Community-wide scheme of environmental labelling. Our aim is to secure such a scheme in time for the first labels to be awarded by the end of 1991 and we will he pressing our European partners to achieve that timetable if at all possible.