§ Mr. Hardyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will monitor and assess damage clone on non-agricultural land as a result of aerial spraying of pesticides.
§ Mr. WigginThe Civil Aviation Authority, the Health and Safety Executive and the Agricultural Departments are variously concerned with these and other arrangements for dealing with all incidents which arise from the aerial spraying of pesticides; and the Advisory Committee on Pesticides is kept informed. The Government are considering the Royal Commission on environmental pollution's recommendation for an interdepartmental review of these arrangements.
§ Mr. Hardyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will advise greater use of laboratory trials and provisional commercial clearance periods before pesticides are allowed to enter general use.
§ Mr. WigginThese are matters on which the Government are guided by the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides in the light of the requirements of the Pesticides Safety Precautions Scheme. The need for laboratory trials and provisional commercial clearance periods depends on a number of factors, for example, whether a new active ingredient is involved, whether the crop to be protected is intended for consumption—when residues data will be relevant—or whether what is involved is merely a minor extension of use.
§ Mr. Hardyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to ensure that DDT is not used on grassland except new leys, brassica, seed crops, peas and beans—except for weevil control on seedling crops—soft fruit, blossom in top fruit, or for the control of aphids in any crop.
§ Mr. WigginDDT is not cleared for any of these uses under the Pesticides Safety Precautions Scheme.
§ Mr. Hardyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will recommend the use of 232W non-persistent pesticides to replace DDT and DDE if he is satisfied that non-persistent alternatives to DDT are satisfactory;
(2) if, in the light of his response to the question of the hon. Member for Rother Valley on Monday 8 December concerning the effects of the DDT derivative DDE, he will now take steps to prohibit or restrict the use of this pesticide.
§ Mr. WigginIn its 1964 and 1969 reports the Advisory Committee on Pesticides recommended that use of certain persistent organochlorine pesticides including DDT—and its derivatives including DDE—should be phased out as and when suitable alternatives became available. As with previous Administrations, it is the Government's policy to implement this recommendation wherever practicable and many uses in agriculture, food storage and related areas have already ceased. Most of the remaining plant protection uses will be phased out from 1 January 1981 under the terms of European Community directive 79/117.
§ Mr. Hardyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will order further trials before there is any increase in the use of methiocarb.
§ Mr. WigginMethiocarb already has full commercial clearance under the Pesticides Safety Precautions Scheme for use as a slug killer and as an insecticidal seed treatment on maize, sweetcorn and sugar beet. Adequate and satisfactory data are required in respect of any application for clearance for new uses.
§ Mr. Hardyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will introduce legal safeguards against the use of carbophenothion in areas from where it has been withdrawn by manufacturers of this approved chemical.
§ Mr. WigginNo. I understand that the action taken by the manufacturers has materially helped to ensure that the pink-footed geese in the areas concerned do not come to harm
§ Mr. Colin Shepherdasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when the Advisory Committee on Pesticides will be reporting on its further review of 2,4,5-T herbicides; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerThe report is being published today and copies are being placed in the Library of the House. In the light of the available medical and scientific evidence the committee has advised that 2,4,5-T herbicides can safely be used in the United Kingdom in the recommended way and for the recommended purposes. The Government accept this advice. The committee has also made some suggestions, mostly concerning pesticides generally, which will be considered by the appropriate Government Departments and agencies in consultation with interests concerned. My right hon. Friends and I are most grateful to Professor Kilpatrick and his committee for the skilled and detailed attention they have given to this important and sensitive inquiry.