§ Lord Beaumont of Whitleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they propose to take to counter the smuggling of CFCs and, in particular, whether they favour the banning of sales and stockpiles of CFCs.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Baroness Hayman)The Government continue to be vigilant in trying to prevent illegal imports of CFCs, and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise has carried out a threat assessment to identify the risk from such trade and methods of combating it. A seminar on international environmental crime held in October 1996 also examined ways of tackling this problem. The Government support the proposal put forward by the European Union to the Open-ended Working Group of the Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol for a ban on the sale of virgin CFCs.