§ The Minister for the Environment (Mr. Elliot Morley)Following the incident in 2003 in which four redundant US naval vessels were transferred from the USA to Hartlepool without the necessary authorisations for them to be dismantled there, I announced in the House on 3 November that
We will require a full evaluation of the situation to set out why the problems have arisen and what lessons we can learn."—[Official Report, 3 November 2003; Vol. 412, c. 535–42.]Subsequently, the Environment Agency has carried out its own internal Review of the events surrounding the incident. Similarly, DEFRA commissioned its own Review. Both Reviews' terms of reference were to identify lessons that could be learned from the incident.
The reports of each Review are available on my Department's website www.defra.gov.uk, and have today been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
The Government will carefully consider the conclusions and recommendations of both Reviews, which were broadly compatible, before issuing a further statement.