HC Deb 12 March 1990 vol 169 cc106-7W
Mr. Tony Lloyd

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if Her Majesty's Government have any plans to increase funding for monitoring radioactive sewage and chemical waste dumping into the Irish sea and research into the environmental implications.

Mr. Curry

I have been asked to reply.

My Department undertakes a substantial programme of environmental monitoring and research covering the Irish sea. We have no current plans to increase the resources committed to this work but the programme is kept under continuous review.

Mr. Tony Lloyd

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a comparative study of levels of radiation in the Irish sea and in other seas.

Mr. Curry

I have been asked to reply.

We have no plans to do so. Such a study has been carried out by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. The results were published in July last year as "The Radioactivity of the Sea", by M. I. Walker and K. S. B. Rose, AERE R 13365.