Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Japan about that government's intention to resume whaling in the Antarctic.

The UK Government regularly makes representations to the Government of Japan to set out our opposition to special permit whaling for “scientific purposes”. Most recently, the UK Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) reiterated the Government’s concerns, including in relation to Japan’s proposals to resume whaling in the Antarctic, at a meeting with the Japanese Commissioner to the IWC in May 2015, and officials from the Japanese Embassy in March 2015. The Minister of State for Farming, Food and the Marine Environment, George Eustice, attended the IWC meeting in September 2014, where he underlined the Government’s continued opposition to commercial whaling.

We will continue to make our concerns known to Japan at every appropriate opportunity, including in light of the recently published advice of the IWC Scientific Committee, which has examined Japan’s latest proposals.