§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Who is responsible (a) in the United Kingdom and (b) elsewhere in the European Union for identifying, monitoring and preventing or minimising possible adverse effects on fish stocks in Northern European waters, including possible damage to the health of the fish and of consumers of fish, from pollutants (whether natural, anthropogenic or combinations of the two) and from the interactions of such pollutants with climatic or other natural processes. [HL3603]
§ Lord DonoughueWithin the United Kingdom, these responsibilities fall to the Fisheries Departments—that is, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Scottish Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department, the Welsh Office Agriculture Department and the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland—in conjunction with others such as the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland and the Environment Agencies. Elsewhere in the European Union these issues would fall to the government of the state concerned.
Pollution in European waters is also covered by international conventions such as the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) and its Annexes.