§ Mr. Costainasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether special technical arrangements for the reporting and surveillance of oil slicks in the zones of joint responsibility in the Dover Straits area and the English Channel have yet been concluded as envisaged in Article 6(4) of the Agreement for Co-operation in Dealing with Pollution of the North Sea by Oil signed at Bonn on 9th June, 1969.
§ Mr. Michael HeseltineDocuments setting out special technical arrangements for the two zones were signed in Paris on 28th July by representatives of the United Kingdom, Belgium and France in respect of the Dover Strait area and by the United Kingdom and France in respect of the rest of the English Channel. They provide for exchange of information about major oil spillage, for immediate surveillance of those threatening coastal pollution and for consultation where the threat is less immediate.
Although, like the Bonn Agreement, these arrangements are formally limited to oil, the same channels of communication will be used for the exchange of information and consultation about major pollution threats from other hazardous substances. Her Majesty's Government greatly welcome this further measure of international co-operation in dealing with threatened coastal pollution.