§ Mr. Kennedyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on progress towards removal of pollution from United Kingdom beaches; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI and my hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for local government and the environment in Scotland announced on 3 February that 389 waters were now included within the scope of the "bathing water" directive (76/160/EEC); 23 of these are in Scotland.
There is now an obligation to monitor all these waters and, where necessary, to bring them up to the directive's standards. Nationally we are spending some £70 million annually in the United Kingdom on remedial works to improve coastal bathing water quality.
More than half the waters surveyed in 1986 already meet the directive's standards. Our aim is for all the waters to meet the directive's standards, although inevitably this will take a number of years.