§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for South Shields, 14 December,Official Report, column 800, whether the replies received from (a) Sweden, (b) Denmark, (c) the Netherlands, (d) Germany and (e) Norway, were in support of his proposals to issue a licence to dump the relevant wastes in the North sea.
§ Mr. Gummer[holding answer 11 January 1990]: Sweden, Denmark and Norway objected to each of the three proposals, the Netherlands objected to two and the Federal Republic of Germany raised no specific objections.
The other seven countries of the Oslo convention did not comment, an indication that they were content with our submissions.
A full response has been sent to each country which raised objections, clarifying misunderstandings which appear to underlie the comments.
In response to concerns that heavy metals could cause harm we have confirmed that there are no detectable heavy metals in the wastes. We have explained that the biochemical oxygen demand would be far too insignificant to have any effect in the sea and that standard works of reference show that the trace level of biodegradable phenol in one waste will not taint fish.
As regards monitoring, we have reminded the countries concerned that these specific wastes are rapidly neutralised in the sea and that their presence in the water is undetectable very shortly after release. We have described our fish and shellfish monitoring programme which shows that fish are not affected by the disposals.