§ Mr. TylerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the withholding of information from the public register of applications for consent to release genetically modified organisms on the grounds of prevention of damage to the environment. [22881]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 15 January 1998]: Under the current legislation, information may be withheld from the public register on the grounds of prevention of damage to the environment. To date, no information has been withheld from the public register on these grounds. We would consider any requests to withhold information on this basis extremely carefully, with safety to the environment as the primary concern.