§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what has been the total staff and administration cost to his Department of the Chernobyl accident.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerThe main staff costs have been borne by my Agriculture Department and whilst precise figures are not available their associated staff costs (to the end of May 1988) are estimated to be around £1 million. It is not possible to quantify separately the staff and administration costs incurred on Chernobyl work by other divisions of the Welsh Office.
Some £385,000 has also been spent on purchasing sheep and other produce for testing, in meeting the costs of laboratory analysis to establish their levels of radioactivity, purchasing live monitoring equipment and for paint used in connection with the mark and release scheme.
431WCompensation to affected north Wales producers amounts to some £3.3 million.