§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the meeting between his Department and non-governmental organisations regarding progress towards the United Nations conference on environment and development, held on 15 January.
§ Mr. BaldryThe meeting on 15 January enabled representatives of non-governmental organisations to give a verbal report on the international meeting they attended in Paris in December. They undertook to provide the Department of the Environment with the final report of the meeting as soon as it was available.
§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Newport, West,Official Report, 15 January, column 574, on liaison with non-governmental organisations on the forthcoming United Nations conference on environment and development, he will set out (a) the dates of the meetings held to date, the issues discussed at each meeting and (b) the dates of the planned meetings and issues expected to be discussed.
§ Mr. BaldryMinisters and officials of the Department of the Environment and other Departments liaise regularly and often with a wide range of non-governmental organisations, individually and in groups, on UNCED issues and will continue to do so in the course of the government's preparations for the conference in June.
§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 15 January,Official Report, columns 574–75, how many copies of the booklet on the United Kingdom's overall approach to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development have been published; and where else the booklet has been made available for the wider public.
§ Mr. BaldrySix thousand copies of the booklet were originally printed and a further 6,000 have been ordered. It has been made available to posts overseas and is being widely used in replies to Ministerial and official enquiries about UNCED.