Illegally Logged Timber (Prohibition of Import, Sale or Distribution) Bill

Iain Stewart Excerpts

Friday 4th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Lucas]

No.

In his speech on his ten-minute rule Bill, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle did an excellent job of explaining why UK legislation was needed, stating that

“it is clear that action at European level will not go far enough”.

Quite correctly, he went on to describe the problem with the EU legislation:

“It lacks an explicit overarching prohibition on illegal timber in the EU market... Loopholes are therefore created whereby all downstream companies—the majority of EU traders—are exempt from even the bare minimum of due diligence requirements. A prohibition on illegal timber needs to apply to all companies that make timber available to the market, whatever their position in the supply chain.”—[Official Report, 16 March 2010; Vol. 507, c. 738.]

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Caroline Lucas]

I will not, because of lack of time.

That is all good stuff, and I of course agree with it. A commitment to just such a prohibition was repeated on page 17 of the coalition agreement, which states that the coalition will bring forward

“Measures to make the import or possession of illegally logged timber a criminal offence”.

Given the critical need to act now and the Government’s clear commitment to go further than the EU, I was alarmed to receive a letter last July from a DEFRA Minister stating that

“we will not be pursuing further UK legislative action at this stage”.

Indeed, another Back Bencher showed me a similar letter that went further by dropping “at this stage” and bluntly stating that

“we will not be pursuing further UK legislative action.”