HC Deb 23 March 1990 vol 169 cc768-9W
Mr. Wray

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Glasgow, Provan of 13 March,Official Report, column 188, if he will list all the chemicals which are (a) persistent, (b) toxic and (c) liable to bioaccumulate which are not included in the United Kingdom red list or covered by the national action plan and which will continue to be discharged into the North sea via pipes and rivers.

Mr. Heathcoat-Amory

Further to my answer to the hon. Member for Glasgow, Provan on 13 March at column188, the following 16 chemicals agreed as priority hazardous substances at the recent North sea conference are not included on the United Kingdom red list: copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, chromium, nickel, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, azinphos-ethyl, fenthion, parathion, parathion-methyl, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethane and dioxins. The first eight of these substances are either EEC list I or list II substances and discharges of such substances are strictly controlled under the arrangements set out in Department of the Environment circular 7/89.

For the remaining substances the Government will be introducing the necessary arrangements to achieve the substantial reductions in the inputs of these substances to water which were agreed at the Hague North sea conference.