§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will make a statement about the existence of chemical weapons in the sea surrounding the British Isles following the end of the second world war;
(2) how many chemical weapons remain deposited in the sea surrounding the British Isles; what types of weapons are involved; what chemicals were contained in these weapons; in what locations they are; when the chemical weapons were first deposited in the sea; when the weapons deposited were last inspected; what evidence there is of chemical leakage; and what steps he is taking to ascertain the circumstances of their disposal.
§ Mr. SoamesBetween 1945 and 1949, the United Kingdom disposed of approximately 120,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, munitions, bombs and shells, mainly filled with mustard and phosgene gas, by deep-sea dumping; an additional 25,000 tons of residual United Kingdom munition stocks and ex-German world war two aerial bombs, containing the nerve agent Tabun, were sea dumped in the Atlantic between 1955 and 1957. Dump sites were located between 50 and 100 miles west of Hebrides, 80 miles north-west of Northern Ireland, 250 miles south-west of Lands End in the western approaches and in Beauforts dyke in the north channel. Sea dumping was considered to be the safest and most practical disposal method at the time. The majority of munitions were sealed within redundant cargo vessels which were then scuttled. No subsequent monitoring of the dump sites has been undertaken in view of the depth. Current scientific evidence indicates that such CW dump sites present no significant risk to human health or to the marine environment.