§ Mr. Corrieasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what action is being taken to remedy the high water lead levels in Glasgow disclosed by the Glasgow duplicate diet study published as Department of the Environment pollution report no. 11.
§ Mr. YoungerLime—dosing of most of Glasgow's water supplies, in order to reduce their plumbosolvency,172W was begun in 1978 by Strathclyde regional council. After the completion of the duplicate diet study the lime dose was increased and has already resulted in a very substantial reduction in the water—lead and community blood lead levels in Glasgow.
In addition, I propose to extend the house improvement grant scheme to enable grants to be given for the bypassing or replacement of lead plumbing including lead tanks. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities have been told that an additional £3 million will be made available towards this work in the non—HRA block capital allocations for 1982–83; and housing authorities have been invited to submit bids on this basis.
Finally, I am asking local authorities in Scotland to begin a survey of houses where there is likely to be a lead in water problem; the survey woul be combined with an information and education exercise to alert householders who are still affected by lead in water of the measures they themselves can take to reduce the hazard. The cost of such surveys will be eligible for rate support grant and relevant expenditure for 1982–83 has been increased by £1 million to this end.