HC Deb 07 March 1994 vol 239 cc44-5W
Mr. Morley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on Government policy on compliance with the Paris Commission's policy agreed in June 1993.

Mr. Atkins

The Paris Commission is a meeting of representatives of the contracting parties to the 1974 Paris convention. A contracting party is bound only by the decisions and recommendations of the Commission that it accepts. It is United Kingdom policy to comply with those decisions and recommendations that we accept. At its June 1993 meeting, the Commission adopted the following decisions and recommendations:

  1. a. Recommendation concerning the limitation of pollution from existing primary iron and steel production installations (PARCOM Recommendation 93/1): adopted by a three-quarters majority (Belgium, Portugal and Spain entered reservations); the United Kingdom accepted this recommendation;
  2. b. Decision on the phasing-out of the use of hexachloroethane in the non-ferrous metal industry (PARCOM Decision 93/1): adopted by a three-quarters majority (Germany and the United Kingdom entered reservations, as did the Commission of the European Communities); the United Kingdom reservation is because we have not completed the assessment of the cost of complying with the decision;
  3. c. Recommendation on further restrictions on the discharge of mercury from dentistry (PARCOM Recommendation 93/2): adopted by a three-quarters majority (France, Portugal and Spain entered reservations); the United Kingdom accepted this recommendation;
  4. d. Recommendation on the elaboration of national action plans and best environmental practice for the reduction of inputs to the environment of pesticides from agricultural use (PARCOM Recommendation 93/3): adopted by a three-quarters majority (France and Portugal entered reservations); the United Kingdom accepted this recommendation;
  5. e. Recommendation on the phasing out of cationic detergents DTDMAC, DSDMAC and DHTDMAC in fabric softners (PARCOM Recommendation 93/4): adopted by a three-quarters majority (the United Kingdom entered a reservation); the United Kingdom reservation was because evidence that available substitutes are less environmentally hazardous is not available except to the firms that have developed them, and because formal action is unnecessary, given the 90 per cent. reduction in usage in recent years;
  6. f.Recommendation concerning increases in radioactive discharges from nuclear reprocessing plants (PARCOM Recommendation 93/5) was adopted by a three-quarters majority (France and the United Kingdom entered reservations, as did the Commission of the European 45 Communities; Belgium entered a study reserve, which has now been withdrawn); the United Kingdom reservation was because the first limb of the recommendation made no progress beyond the commitment in the 1992 Action Plan, while the second limb both was too vague to provide a proper basis for a PARCOM recommendation and, insofar as it provided for a role for the Paris Commission in the decision process, was inappropriate.