§ Lord Stanley of Alderleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will comment on the claims made in the recent Country Landowners' Association 95WA North Welsh Group's report on the effects of the Chernobyl accident to the effect that post-Chernobyl restrictions on the movement and slaughter of sheep may need to remain in place for 30 years; that erosion is the only effective natural mechanism for removing Caesium 137 from mineral-deficient soils; that the Ministry of Agiculture, Fisheries and Food has a policy of secrecy regarding its post-Chernobyl research programme; and that the Government have failed to consult the farming community.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Trumpington)I am grateful for an opportunity to set the record straight regarding some of the claims put forward in the above mentioned report.
There is no evidence to justify the CLA assertion that restrictions on sheep affected by the Chernobyl fallout may remain in place for 30 years. In all lowland areas of the UK, levels of radioactivity from fallout have already dropped substantially. In respect of upland areas, my department has set in hand a major programme of research to enable it to make, at the earliest opportunity, more precise predictions of the long-term behaviour of the radioactive caesium in the relevant upland ecosystems. Ministry officials have been careful not to make premature predictions until the results of this work are available later this year.
The claim in the CLA report that soil erosion is the only means of reducing the caesium content of soil rests on a study carried out on alluvial silt loam soil in the United States. The conditions there are not relevant to the problems encountered with our upland peaty soils.
The Government have done and will continue to do everything possible to give information on all aspects of action taken following the Chernobyl accident and to publicise the substantial programme of post-Chernobyl research and development work by means of meeting with the farmers' unions, the CLA, and by giving detailed information to the press and media including on key field and laboratory studies.
The Government drew up the mark and release scheme and compensation arrangements in full consultation with farmers' unions and others concerned so as to take account of normal farming patterns. Last year the farmers' unions and the CLA were sent details of the research programme in hand. In February last each individual farmer in the restricted area in England and Wales received a letter setting out the prospects for the coming season. A further letter will be sent this year. All monitoring results have been made generally available and copies placed in the Library of the House. The agricultural departments have made every effort to see that the public generally and farmers in particular have been kept fully informed of the situation as it has developed. These efforts will be continued.