To ask the President of the Board of Trade if his Department has been invited to participate in (a) the conference on the practical implications of the New European Commission eco-labelling scheme, to be held in London on 18 June and (b) the conference on packaging and the environment and the implications for the British Retail Consortium, to be held in London on 15 June.

[holding answer 2 June 1992]: My Department is in contact with the organisers of these conferences. Speakers at the conferences will include experts who have been advising and assisting my Department on the development of the EC eco-labelling scheme. Dr. Elizabeth Nelson, the recently appointed chairman of the non-departmental public body which is being established by my Department and the Department of the Environment to administer the eco-labelling scheme in the United Kingdom will address the conference on 18 June. A member of the National Advisory Group on Eco-labelling—NAGEL—will also address the Conference. Participants in the British Retail Consortium conference on 15 June will include a member of NAGEL and an official of the Department of the Environment.