Written question asked by Laurence Robertson (Conservative) on Thursday, 19 May 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 May 2005. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 June 2005 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Whaling

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has had with (a) the Government of Norway and (b) other governments on the practice of whaling; and if she will make a statement.

Answer: The UK Government regularly makes its opposition to whaling known to the Government of Norway. Officials will be raising the recent announcement of an increase in Norwegian whaling when they visit the country in the near future. Together with Australia and New Zealand, we intend to make our opposition to Japanese 'scientific whaling' known in a forthcoming joint demarche. Together with colleagues from the French and German embassies, HM ambassador in Reykjavik issued a statement on 24 May repeating our strong opposition to their continuing 'scientific whaling' programme. I made our objections very clear with regard to Norwegian whaling and the Japanese and Icelandic 'scientific whaling', together with the extreme cruelty involved, following the BBC news feature on 9 May on Norwegian whaling.

Secondary information