§ Mr. Johnasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proportion of loads of (a) sewage sludge, (b) industrial waste and (c) dredged spoils destined for sea disposal were sampled in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. MacGregor[pursuant to his reply, 4 March 1985]: Materials for disposal at sea under the provisions of the Dumping at Sea Act 1974 are sampled in a variety of ways according to their nature and their potential harm to the marine environment. For sewage sludge, sampling is undertaken on application for an annual licence. Samples of industrial wastes are taken on initial application and repeated as appropriate in the case of material changes. In addition, 7 per cent. of all vessel sailings undergo inspection by enforcement officers. As for dredged spoils representative samples are taken from all consignments greater than 10,000 tonnes as required by the provisions of the Oslo and London dumping conventions. As such spoils tend to be of constant composition, further samples are not regularly taken.
§ Mr. Johnasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proportion of sewage sludge was dumped at sea in each year since 1970.
§ Mr. MacGregor[pursuant to his reply, 4 March 1985]: The Government do not collect annual statistics on the proportion of sewage sludge dumped at sea. It has, however, been estimated that the proportion was between about one quarter and one third in the last decade.