HL Deb 14 October 1976 vol 375 cc640-1WA
Lord KENNET

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they requested, and if so, received (as is their right under the 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf) information from the large-scale study conducted by the Soviet research vessel "Andromeda", starting in 1973, into the pollution of the North Sea resulting from offshore oil extraction and industrial waste.

Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS

Her Majesty's Government have no knowledge of the activities in the North Sea of the Soviet research vessel "Andromeda" in 1973. The Soviet authorities did not seek the consent of Her Majesty's Government to carry out studies there, nor would they have needed to if the researches were confined to the water column or the surface above the Continental Shelf. There was therefore no opportunity to ask for information resulting from a study.