Land Mines (Hansard, 24 February 1997)

§ Mr. Cousins
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Pembroke (Mr. Ainger) of 17 February,Official Report, column 365, if he will list the types of mines and specified conventional weapons which are prohibited or restricted by the UN protocol as amended on 3 May 1996. [17243]

§ Mr. Arbuthnot
In summary, amended protocol II of the UN weaponry convention contains the following relevant prohibitions and restrictions.
It prohibits the use and transfer of: land mines, booby-traps or other devices which are designed or of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering; non-detectable anti-personnel land mines; mines, booby-traps or other devices which employ a mechanism or device specifically designed to detonate the munition by the presence of commonly available mine detectors; self-deactivating mines equipped with an anti-handling device that is designed in such a manner that the anti-handling device is capable of functioning after the mine has ceased to be capable of functioning.
It places restrictions on the use and transfer of: land mines, including anti-personnel land mines and remotely delivered land mines. It also places restrictions on the use of: booby traps; other devices (these are defined as "manually-emplaced munitions and devices including improvised explosive devices designed to kill, injure or damage and which are actuated manually, by remote control or automatically after a lapse of time").

§ Mr. Ainger
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when his Department last purchased(a) land mines and (b) related equipment. [16002]

§ Mr. Arbuthnot
[holding answer 17 February 1997]My Department placed an order for anti-tank mines as part of the Shielder vehicle-launched scatterable mine system in December 1995; deliveries of the system are due to begin in 1998–99. Deliveries were completed in 1996 of the multiple-launch rocket system phase 2 AT-2 rocket dispensing anti-tank mines. My Department last placed an order for anti-personnel mines in 1991.
In 1996 my Department also placed orders for a number of mine-related equipments: mine detection and clearance systems for use in Bosnia; battery packs for fuses for existing anti-tank Barmine systems; inert land mines for training purposes; and the Mineplough system for fitting to engineer tanks and main battle tanks.