HC Deb 27 February 1990 vol 168 cc122-3W
Mr. Lawrence

To ask the Secretary of State for Health. pursuant to the answer to the hon. and learned Member for Burton on 20 February, (1) what effective difference there is between the statutory and the non-statutory indemnity;

(2) what section of the statutory indemnity provided on 21 November 1989 for Severn Trent Water accepts liability for negligence.

Mr. Freeman

The statutory indemnity was issued under the terms of section 172 of the Water Act 1989 which permits my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State to indemnify a water undertaker in respect of certain liabilities incurred by the undertaker only in connection with its increasing the fluoride content of any water it supplies.

The non-statutory indemnity was issued to cover liabilities incurred by the water undertaker in connection with the supply of fluoridated water to persons in its water region, or the exporting of this fluoridated water outside its water region, where the undertaker has not first increased the fluoride content.

The reasons for the issue of the non-statutory indemnity were fully explained in the minute which was laid before Parliament by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Health on 23 November 1989. The non-statutory indemnity was issued on 22 December 1989 as no objection to the proposal to undertake this contingent liability was signified within the prescribed period.

Paragraph 2 of the statutory indemnity describes the terms of the indemnity given to Severn Trent Water.