§ Baroness Eccles of Moultonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will announce the results of the survey of bathing water quality in 1991.
§ The Minister of State, Department of the Environment (Baroness Blatch)Results from the survey carried out during the 1991 bathing season showed that 76 per cent. of the 453 identified bathing waters in the United Kingdom met the mandatory coliform bacteria standards of the EC Bathing Water Directive. This compares with 77 per cent. in 1990 and 76 per cent. in 1989.
These results are encouraging because overall compliance has remained steady in spite of the worse summer weather this year.
Completion of improvement schemes for some 20 bathing waters in the £2 billion clean-up programme has helped to offset the effects of the poor weather and it is clear that the programme, which was expanded and accelerated last year, is beginning to deliver tangible environmental improvements. Many more schemes are due to be completed in the next few years so that by 1995 virtually all our bathing waters will be up to the required standard.
The 1991 results for the United Kingdom are set out below in summary form. I shall arrange for a more detailed summary of results to be placed in the Library and we shall also be sending the detailed results to the Commission of the European Communities.
Bathing Waters survey—1991 Results for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. (Compliance With Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC): Coliform Standards).
32WA
Pass Fail Total England and Wales NRA Regions Northumbrian 21(21) 12(11) 33(32) Yorkshire 19(17) 3(5) 22(22) Anglian 29(27) 4(2) 33(29) Thames 2(3) 1(0) 3(3) Southern 45(48) 22(18) 67(66) Wessex 36(39) 3(0) 39(39) South West 105(118) 28(15) 133(133) North West 10(10) 23(23) 33(33) Welsh 45(35) 6(15) 51(50) Total 312(318) 102(89) 414(407) Scotland 15(12) 8(11) 23(23) Northern Ireland 16(15) 0(1) 16(16)
Pass Fail Total Grant Total 343(345) 110(101) 453(446) (Result for 1990 are in brackets).