§ Mr. MacdonaldTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether the forum on nephrops, to be convened by the chairman of the Sea Fish Industry Authority, is expected to meet before the summer recess.
§ Sir Hector Monro[holding answer 9 June 1992]: The arrangements for the nephrops forum are being made by the Sea Fish Industry Authority. I understand that the forum is to be held on Friday, 31 July.
§ Mr. MacdonaldTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what surveys of the quality of Scottish coastal waters in respect of meeting EC standard on shellfish production have been made by DAFS; and whether he will make the findings available.
§ Sir Hector Monro[holding answer 9 June 1992]: The classification of shellfish harvesting areas to meet the requirements of EC directive 91/492 is being undertaken by my Department's marine laboratory in Aberdeen. The exercise involves establishing the level of bacteriological contamination present in samples of shellfish flesh taken from harvesting areas.
Decisions on classification will be taken later in the year but information on the results so far will be issued to interested parties this month. Thus far the results have 216W been encouraging with some 70 per cent. of results indicating category A, with 20 per cent. suggesting category B and the remainder in category C. But these are early days and some deterioration in the results over the coming months may occur linked to changing conditions.