HL Deb 01 May 1995 vol 563 cc101-2WA
Lord Beaumont of Whitley

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will bring up to date the information given in the reply by Viscount Cranborne on 14 February 1994 (H.L. Deb., cols. 86–9) on the subject of landmines, and in particular:

  1. (1) whether the United Kingdom has now ratified the 1981 United Nations Weaponry Convention;
  2. (2) whether a review conference is still expected to occur in 1995;
  3. (3) what (a) grants and (b) secondment of personnel have been provided for the clearance of landmines in the past year and;
  4. (4) whether they consider that world-wide incidence of landmines is now increasing or decreasing; in the former case, what steps they consider can be taken to reverse this trend; in the latter, what targets they consider can be set to ensure the continuation of the trend.

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

  1. (1) We ratified the 1981 United Nations Weaponry Convention on 13 February;
  2. (2) The Review Conference will take place in Vienna from 25 September to 13 October 1995. The UK will participate as a full State Party;
  3. (3) In the financial year 1994–95, the UK gave £5,675,000 bilaterally to mine clearance operations and nearly £2,000,000 through the EC. Our bilateral contributions included a £500,000 donation to the UN's recently-established Voluntary Trust Fund for Mine Clearance. The UK has no personnel seconded to humanitarian mine clearance operations.
  4. (4) It is impossible at present to assess whether the use of landmines is more or less prevalent than WA 102 previously. We believe that the problem of landmines is best tackled by a range of measures, including strengthening the 1981 United Nations Weaponry Convention; restrictions on the export of anti-personnel landmines, such as the United Kingdom's indefinite moratorium; and further international controls on the manufacture, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. We are actively pursuing all these approaches.