73. Mrs. Butlerasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs what arrangements are made for supplying medical officers of health with a list of all factories, hospitals, and other establishments using radioactive materials and 91W discharging radioactive wastes in the local authority area for which they are responsible.
§ Mr. H. BrookeThe Government do not feel able to supply these details as a matter of routine, but my Department gives to medical officers of health, on request, an appreciation of the extent to which radioactive materials are used in their areas. Local authorities are informed of the location of radioactive sources if some action on their part might be required, for example, in the event of an accident.
74. Mrs. Butlerasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs, what advice his Department is giving to medical officers of health with regard to the provision of monitoring equipment for the detection of radioactivity in the local authority areas for which they are responsible.
§ Mr. H. BrookeMeasurements of environmental radioactivity taken locally would not add materially to the value of the Government's own monitoring arrangements. Requests for advice from medical officers of health are answered on the basis that additional measurements would tend to duplicate what is already being done for the country as a whole through Government agency, and that money would not be well spent on widespread local monitoring.