§ Mr. Bill WalkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will report the progress made in dealing with public drinking water supplies in Scotland which do not yet meet the standard for lead set in the European Directive relating to the quality of drinking water; and if he will make a statement.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe Scottish water authorities — the regional and islands councils — are responsible for implementing EC directive 80/778/EEC in relation to public water supplies as part of their statutory duty to provide a supply of wholesome water for domestic purposes.
At the Governments request, the water authorities carried out surveys to identify those supplies which did not meet the directive's standard for lead concentrations at the consumer's tap. The surveys revealed that, when the directive came into force in July 1985, 103 water supplies in Scotland did not comply with the directive. The Government therefore applied to the European Commission for a delay in complying with the lead standard under article 20 of the directive in respect of those supplies and others in the United Kingdom.
The Scottish water authorities are making good progress: 18 of the 103 supplies have already been improved to the directive's standard and at least 47 more will comply by the end of 1989. By that stage, only about 15 per cent. of the Scottish population will be living in supply areas which do not comply fully with the directive: and the proportion who actually receive drinking water with lead levels in excess of the directive's standard will be very much less than this—probably around 3 per cent.
Table 2: Lennox Castle—Discharges of Long Stay (2 Years+) Patients 1979–85 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 Discharged home living with relatives or friends 10 5 2 9 10 7 16 Discharged home living alone — — 2 — — — 1 Discharged to hostel for ex-patients — — — — 1 5 — Death 34 25 32 33 58 33 26 No data are available centrally on the non-admission of new patients. The data in the table do not include transfers to other hospitals.