§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the cost of protection, surveillance and monitoring at Gruinard island in each year since 1988.
§ Mr. SoamesThis is a matter for the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment under its framework820W document. I have asked the chief executive CBDE to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Graham Pearson to Mr. Jim Cousins, dated 16 December 1994:
QUESTION 23, ORDER PAPER 8 DECEMBER 1994
- 1. Your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking what was the cost of protection, surveillance and monitoring at Gruinard Island in each year since 1988.
- 2. Gruinard Island was successfully decontaminated in the Summer of 1986 as has been reported in Chemistry in Britain 24, 690–1(1988). This work was carried out by CBDE Porton Down with the aid of an industrial contractor. An independent evaluation of the work was provided by the Independent Advisory Group on Gruinard Island, whose Chairman was selected by the President of the Royal Society.
- 3. The island was returned to its original owners in May 1990. During the period from 1988 to 1990 there were final payments amounting to about £6,000 to the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology who were completing a study of the biological consequences of the decontamination of Gruinard Island which had cost £53,000. There were also small residual costs associated with the winding up of the Independent Advisory Group and with the return of the island to its original owners; the exact magnitude of these costs is not readily available without disproportionate effort.