§ Mr. Adleyasked the Prime Minister if, pursuant to her reply to the hon. Member for Christchurch and Lymington on 11 April, Official Report, c. 307, she will introduce legislation to require lead filters to be fitted to motor vehicle exhausts, without specification of material of construction, in order to retain consumer choice.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the Paliamentary statement on environmental lead made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment on 18 April. [Vol. 41, c. 21–31.] The Royal Commission on environmental pollution has made clear its concern over the problems of disposing of lead filters and the risk that the use of filters would substitute one pollution pathway for another. The Royal Commission does not favour the adoption of lead filters as a long term measure, and we do not intend to introduce legislation on the lines suggested by my hon. Friend.