To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps the Government is taking to secure a comprehensive ban on whaling by the Japanese Government; and if he will make a statement. (279085)

The UK Government will continue to make their opposition to whaling known to Japan at every appropriate opportunity and argue that they undermine the credibility of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as an effective organisation for the conservation of whale stocks world-wide.

Unfortunately the right of any Contracting Government to the IWC to issue ‘Special permits’ and to conduct lethal research into whaling is enshrined in Article VIII of the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW).

At the next annual meeting of the IWC in June, 2009 (IWC61) the UK will once again call on Japan to cease its lethal whaling operations and engage in the non-lethal research of whales.