§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the number of staff in his Department qualified(a) to inspect contamination in drinking water and (b) to advise on matters regarding contamination of drinking water.
§ Mr. FreemanIt is the responsibility of the statutory water undertakers to inspect contamination in drinking water.
70WAdvice on the medical aspects of contamination requires an input from several disciplines and depending on the cause of contamination a number of different members of the Department's medical and scientific staff will be qualified to contribute.
Contamination of drinking water might be by micro-organisms, chemicals, or radiation. In providing advice to the Government on such issues the Chief Medical Officer is supported by two divisions (containing medical and scientific stall), can call upon the public health laboratory service and other specialist organisations, and obtain advice from committees of independent experts.