To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the policy of his Ministry regarding an increase in consumer representation on the Codex Committee. [36427]

Only member nations and associate members of the Food and Agriculture Organisation and/or the World Health Organisation may nominate delegates to the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Some intergovernmental and international non-governmental organisations are invited to attend as observers. We have always indicated to UK interests, both industry and consumers, that, if they wished to nominate individuals to attend meetings, we would he happy to include them in UK delegations. Consumers International—formerly the International Organisation of Consumer Unions—has observer status at Codex meetings and does send representatives.The UK Codex Consultative Committee which meets to discuss items on the agenda of Codex meetings, has in membership the National Consumer Council, the Consumers' Association, the Consumers in the European Community Group, the National Federation of Consumer Groups, the Food and Drink Federation, the British Retail Consortium and the Local Authorities Co-ordinating Body on Food and Trading Standards, which represents a cross section of interests in the matters under discussion. A number of other organisations have expressed interest in membership. It is, however, difficult to adjust the membership without upsetting the balance of interests or making the committees too large to operate satisfactorily. I thus have no plans for change; particular interests are co-opted to particular meetings as the need arises.