§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will instigate an inquiry to ascertain the extent of the spread of plutonium traces from Sellafield in Cumbria along the west coast of Scotland.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton[holding answer 13 December 1991]: The levels of radioactivity in the Scottish marine environment are monitored regularly on behalf of the Secretary of State by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's directorate of fisheries research, and the programme includes samples from the west coast.
The results are published annually in reports in the series "Radioactivity in Surface and Coastal Waters in the British Isles" and these are in the Library. They confirm that the levels of artificial radionuclides including plutonium in samples from Scottish waters are very low and well within the limits based on the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection.