To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress his Department made at the recent conference of the International Whaling Commission on the moratorium on commercial whaling. (144203)

Since the UK and the anti-whaling bloc had a simple majority at this year's meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), we were able to sponsor and secure a resolution reaffirming the continued need for the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling. This resolution subsequently served us well in the conference of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, enabling us to defeat proposals aimed at eventually allowing trade in whale products to take place.