§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will detail all those measures that he has (a) undertaken so far and (b) proposes to take to improve river quality.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneIn the last 18 months we have implemented all the main provisions of part II of the Control of Pollution Act 1974, providing a comprehensive statutory framework for the protection of our rivers and coastal waters. The provisions include full public participation in the system for controlling discharges of effluent, a code of good agricultural practice to prevent pollution from agricultural sources, and wide powers to deal with accidental and diffuse pollution. We have also8W reviewed the policy and procedures for the control of discharges of sewage effluent made by water authorities, set a financial framework which provides for higher investment by those authorities, continued the initiative to clean up the Mersey and made further progress with the implementation of the EEC directives on dangerous substances discharged to the aquatic environment.
For the future it remains the Government's intention to continue our policy to maintain and improve water quality, and in keeping with this a new national survey of rivers and estuaries will be undertaken to help develop programmes for the control of water pollution. This year we will be making regulations providing for the opening, in July, of registers containing details about water quality and discharges of effluent, and announcing proposals for the withdrawal of the exemptions conferred by the Control of Pollution (Exemption of Certain Discharges from Control) Order 1983. In addition, public consultation will be undertaken on proposals for the effective use of the new precautionary measures introduced by part II of the 1974 Act.