Pesticides (Hansard, 26 March 1990)

§ Sir Richard Body
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will seek to obtain the handbook of basic information on the 100 most commonly used50W pesticides in the United States of America, published by the United States Department of Agriculture; and if he will arrange for a similar publication in the United Kingdom.

§ Mr. Maclean
This Department and the Department of Agriculture for Scotland monitor usage of pesticides and the results are published. We are currently preparing a review of the surveys carried out between 1984 and 1989, which cover all main crops, to be published later this year. The USDA publication is being sought.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the pesticides for which his Ministry carries out surveillance for residues in food that are(a) banned in the United Kingdom and (b) in use in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
Monitoring for pesticide residues is carried out by the working party on pesticide residues. Results are published and show, for all samples analysed, both those pesticides which have been sought and the levels of any residues which have been found.

§ Dr. David Clark
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what action he intends to take to phase out pesticides listed in part (c) of annex B of the final declaration of the third international conference on the protection of the North sea; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
Under the terms of the North sea declaration, special attention is to be paid to phasing out pesticides which are the most persistent, toxic and liable to bioaccumulate. Annex 1B, part (c), lists 18 substances the use of which must be strictly limited or banned. Eleven of these substances are not approved for use in the United Kingdom, and approval for another, chlordane, will be withdrawn on 31 December 1992.
The remaining six substances are all tightly controlled under the Control of Pesticide Regulations 1986. Atrazine is being reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Pesticides, mercury compounds and PCP are being considered by the European Community, and chloropicrin, fluroacetamide and quintozene will be considered by the Advisory Committee on Pesticides when priorities for review are set later this year.