§ Lord Jenkin of Rodingasked Her Majesty's Government:
What efforts they have made to secure international agreement on the environmental safety of genetically modified organisms.
26WAstatutory authority to sell, according to the department's records, are as detailed below. The date on which the properties were sold has no direct bearing on the making of the order and is not known to the department in all cases.
§ Baroness BlatchThe White Paper on the environment,Our Common Inheritance, recognised that the safe development of biotechnology based on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) requires the agreement of satisfactory environmental safeguards, both nationally and internationally. Good progress has been made to date. In particular, the United Kingdom Government played an influential role in the adoption last year of two European Communities directives on GMOs and has made provision in Part VI of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for implementation of their environmental requirements.
The United Kingdom is actively participating in work to secure wider international agreement on the safety of GMOs. An opportunity for further significant progress is provided by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development to be held in Brazil in 1992 (UNCED 1992). As part of the preparations for the conference, the UK Government have responded positively to a Netherlands proposal for a UN approach on biotechnology safety and are developing that proposal further in collaboration with their Dutch counterparts. The proposal aims to encourage the effective risk assessment and management of GMO activities worldwide through the development of international guidelines based on the exchange of information and expertise. The Government see this as a positive contribution to preparations for UNCED 1992 and hope that other countries will support the UK and the Netherlands in seeking to make this initiative a success.