§ Mr. Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the average content and standard deviation of caesium content, in becquerels per kilogram, in monitored lambs in each monitoring area of Scotland since April.
§ Mr. John MacKayIn the area of Dumfries and Galloway from which restrictions were lifted on 8 July, the mean level of caesium-134 and caesium-137 together in 233 samples was 198 becquerels per kilogram and the standard deviation was 152. There is no need for such statistics to be calculated for areas where monitoring shows clearly that restrictions on the movement and slaughtering of lambs cannot yet be removed or for areas where testing and other available evidence have demonstrated that there is no cause for restrictions to be imposed.
§ Mr. Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what geographical sub-divisions have been used in the monitoring of caesium content in lambs in Scotland since the beginning of May.
§ Mr. John MacKayMonitoring is undertaken by local authority area and is concentrated in locations where it appears, on the basis of evidence collected since the Chernobyl incident occurred, that depositions of radioactive material may have been such as to give rise to high caesium readings in young lambs.
§ Mr. Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many lambs have been tested for caesium content in each area of Scotland since the beginning of May.
§ Mr. John MacKayThe following is the information to date:
Region or Islands area Number of animals tested Borders 18 Central 3 Dumfries and Galloway 934 Fife 1 Grampian 8 Highland 113 Lothian 2 Orkney 2 Shetland 1 Strathclyde 51 Tayside 5 Western Isles 4