Rivers (Hansard, 23 May 1990)

§ 82. Mr. Lee
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what percentages of United Kingdom and European rivers are good or fair quality.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
A review of river classification schemes across the European Community published in 1988 by the water research centre showed that 95 per cent. of river length in the United Kingdom was of good or fair quality compared with 75 per cent. in the European Community as a whole. The review also indicated that no other member state bettered our position.

§ 82. Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement about the level of pollution of the River Thames through London.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
The 1985 river quality survey showed that the Thames is largely of "good" or "fair" quality—within the top two categories of the national classification scheme. A copy of the survey is in the Library of the House. More recent information on a directly comparable basis is not currently available, although the National Rivers Authority will be conducting another national survey during 1990, the results of which will be published in 1991.
The classification system used for recent river quality surveys gives an overall measure of the levels of pollution in a river. Detailed information on levels of individual pollutants can be obtained from the public registers maintained by the National Rivers Authority. These include the results of the analyses carried out of routine samples taken of river water; and the registers available for inspection at the National Rivers Authority's Thames office contain data obtained from sampling at many sites on the Thames.