§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, (1) pursuant to his answer of 12 January to the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Evans),Official Report, columns 200–1, regarding the conducting of the investigation of shipments of hazardous waste from the United Kingdom to developing countries (a) how much civil service and consultant time the investigation has utilised so far, (b) how much civil servant and consultant time the investigation is expected to utilise in total, (c) which organisation other than his Department will be involved in the investigation, (d) what are the terms of reference of the investigation, (e) when and how the investigation was announced and (f) which United Kingdom and overseas organisations have been invited to submit evidence;
(2) pursuant to his answer of 12 January to the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Evans), Official Report, columns 200–1, regarding the report of the investigation of shipments of hazardous waste from the United Kingdom to developing countries (a) when the investigation will be complete, (b) how the investigation will make its report and (c) when the report will be made public;
(3) pursuant to his answer of 12 January to the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Evans), Official Report, columns 200–1, regarding the scope of the investigation of shipments of hazardous waste from the United Kingdom to developing countries (a) which countries the investigators will visit and for how long, (b) how many hazardous waste recovery facilities the investigators will visit, (c) which United Kingdom organisations have been invited to submit evidence and (d) what criteria the investigation will use to evaluate whether recovery operations in non-OECD countries are environmentally sound.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe investigation has utilised about 150 hours of civil service time, but no consultant time to date. The time which will be spent upon the investigation will depend upon the findings in the first stage of the inquiry, which is designed to obtain information about environmental standards in receiving countries. The Department will consult representative trade organisations for the industries mainly concerned as well as environmental interest groups.
The announcement of the investigation and its terms of reference, details of the reporting method and its availability and the United Kingdom organisations invited to submit evidence were detailed in my reply of 12 January 1994 to my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Evans), Official Report, columns 200–1. No specific invitations were issued to organisations to submit 41W evidence, but I shall be glad to take account of any relevant information that United Kingdom or overseas organisations might send me.
The first stage of the investigation will be completed in May 1994. The countries and hazardous waste facilities which will be investigated will depend upon the outcome of the first stage of the inquiry. The investigation will use the technical criteria established by the United Nations environment programme's expert group, the Basel convention technical working group on the environmentally sound management of wastes, when evaluating recovery operations in non-OECD countries.