§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will now give the specific reasons why it was not thought appropriate to include appendix 10 to the health and safety report on the risks to people living in and around Canvey Island, since this appendix was prepared by the British Gas Corporation's research section, and shows that too little is yet known about the behaviour and consequences of an unconfined explosion involving liquefied natural gas close to people's homes; and what further research is being undertaken.
§ Mr. John GrantI am informed by the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission that the reason why it was not thought appropriate to include the document prepared by the British Gas Corporation in the report as appendix 10 was that it differed markedly from all the other material in the report in being a statement made by an occupier of one of the principal installations in the area of the investigation. Theoretical work and laboratory and field experiments are going on with two broad objectives; to determine the conditions under which ignition of an unconfined cloud of flammable vapours in air can lead to damaging overpressures, and to obtain an understanding of the factors influencing any difference in behaviour between fuels.
§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether the Health and Safety Executive has imposed any time limit on the building of containment walls round hazardous sites on Canvey Island, the raising of protective banks round the in-ground liquefied gas storage tanks at the methane terminal, and on the completion of the special study of ways of minimising the consequences 581W of the release of liquefied gases by ships at the terminal jetty, setting out the situation separately in each case; and whether the local authority will be told when such works have been completed.
§ Mr. John GrantI am informed by the chairman of the Health and Safety Commission that the Health and Safety Executive has not imposed any time limit on the measures necessary to implement the recommendations of its report on the investigation of potential hazards from operations in the Canvey Island-Thurrock area. Discussions with those responsible for the operations are currently taking place and a timetable for the necessary remedial work is being prepared. The local authority will be kept fully informed.