§ 28. Mr. Ray Powellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects Britain's bathing beaches to be able to comply fully with the European Economic Community water quality directive; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaldegraveMore than half the United Kingdom bathing waters already comply with the directive's standards. Typically, major schemes to improve the quality of bathing waters take a number of years to complete and involve expenditure of millions of pounds. However, at the present rate of spending, we expect nearly all these waters to comply by the end of the century.