§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will up-date the statistics relating to the extent of grossly polluted rivers and canals, the number of unsatisfactory sewage effluent discharges into rivers, and the unsatisfactory discharges of industrial process water, given in his Department's river pollution survey of England and Wales, 1975.
§ Mr. Denis Howell:It is important that this kind of information should be produced and published periodically. But the present river pollution survey is not necessarily the best way to present the data: it takes a long time to produce and the results are often difficult to interpret. I am, therefore, examining other ways of doing the job for the future.