§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list for each water authority in England the number of sewage works in breach of numerical discharge consents in the 12 months before and the 12 months after the introduction of relaxed methods of measurement notified to chief executives in a letter from his Department of 28 January 1985.
§ Mr. RidleyWater authorities were required to supply detailed returns on non-compliant works only for the calendar year 1986. The necessary information to supply an answer to this question is therefore not available.
However, inquiries of water authorities in 1984 suggested that in England as a whole up to 60 per cent. of works were failing their consents in that year. A detailed breakdown of this figure was not given. The returns for 1987, which were placed in the Libraries of both Houses in June this year, show that this has been reduced to 20.7 per cent.