§ Mr. GreenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will publish the information(a) held by his Department and (b) submitted by the Building Research Establishment on the condition of dams in England and Wales. [139919]
§ Mr. MullinMy Department holds no comprehensive information about the condition of dams in England and Wales. Local authorities which have enforcement duties under the Reservoirs Act 1975 are required to maintain public registers containing prescribed details of all the reservoirs in their area subject to the Act's safety regime. Such reservoirs are those which are designed to hold, or are capable of holding, more than 25,000 cu m above the natural level of adjoining land. These details include summaries of all certificates and reports received by the authority from the panel engineers appointed by the Secretary of State to supervise and inspect reservoirs.286W Enforcement authorities receive copies of all reports of inspections which draw attention to measures necessary to be taken in the interests of safety.
As part of the Reservoir Safety Research Programme of my Department, the Building Research Establishment has compiled a Dams Database, to provide a register of dams that come within the ambit of the Reservoirs Act 1975, to provide background information for particular research projects and to assemble data on problems, incidents and remedial works. Information contained in the database has been made available to parties with an interest in reservoir safety and is available on request.