§ Mr. SalmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list details of all incidents where the local population at Kirkcudbright have been advised not to drink water or eat shellfish, the time scale involved in each case and the reason given for the advice in each case, for the last five years.
§ Sir Hector MonroSince 1988, Dumfries and Galloway regional council has not issued any advice to Kirkcudbright consumers not to drink water from the public supply. There are a number of private water supplies in the area; Stewartry district council monitor these routinely and from time to time have advised individual owners of poor quality private supplies to boil the water before drinking it pending improvements. Records of these cases are not held centrally.
Advising the general public not to eat shellfish is a matter for the appropriate district council's environmental health department. Stewartry district council has done this once—June 1993, Dhoon bay—following notification to the council by the Scottish Office Agriculture and Fisheries Department that paralytic shellfish poison toxin levels were above the agreed safety limit. The Department does not have records of similar advice being given for any other reasons.