HC Deb 27 January 1993 vol 217 cc760-1W
24. Dr. Lynne Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how he intends to ensure that environmental considerations are in future taken into account in establishing rules for maritime transport of oil.

29. Mr. Barry Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how he intends to ensure that environmental considerations are in future taken into account in establishing rules for the maritime transport of oil.

Mr. Howard

The International Maritime Organisation has been taking environmental considerations into account in establishing rules for maritime transport since at least the time of theTorrey Canyon disaster in 1967. In the United Kingdom, we shall be considering what further changes are desirable in the light of the report of the inquiry by Lord Donaldson of Lymington into the further measures needed to protect the United Kingdom coastline from pollution from merchant shipping. At the European level, following Monday's extraordinary joint Environment/Transport Council, both Ministers of the Environment and the Ministers of Transport will be considering how to improve the regulation of shipping in the light of proposals from the EC Commission.