§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what assessment he has made of the effect on the marine environment of any leakage of the contents of the ships scuttled in the Irish Sea in the mid-1950s; [17849]
(2) on how many occasions since 1965 ordnance, nerve gases and other noxious agents have been dumped at sea. [17851]
§ Mr. SoamesI refer the hon. Member to my answer of 27 January,Official Report, column 448, 3 February, Official Report, column 890, and 31 March, Official Report, columns 875–76, to the hon. Members for South Shields (Dr. Clark) and for Western Isles (Mr. Macdonald).
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his policy for getting rid of surplus ordnance and chemical and biological weapons. [17850]
§ Mr. SoamesSurplus conventional munitions are disposed of by demolition, open burning or breakdown. The UK no longer holds stocks of chemical weapon munitions, and any old chemical weapons munitions found in the UK are transferred to the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment at Porton Down, where rounds are individually analysed and the chemical agent1144W "fill" disposed of by incineration. Biological weapons were abandoned by the UK in the 1950s: there has been no recent requirement to dispose of any such weapons.
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he is taking to ensure that nerve gases, bombs and other noxious agents dumped in the North sea in the mid-1950s do not pose a threat to coastal areas of the United Kingdom and Ireland and to the marine environment. [17852]
§ Mr. SoamesMy Department has no knowledge of dumping of any chemical munitions or their agents in the North sea in the 1950s.