§ Harry CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement about the number of chemical weapons dumped at sea and the potential risk they pose. [48889]
§ Dr. MoonieI have been asked to reply.
Detailed inventories of chemical weapons and other munitions disposed of to dumpsites at sea are no longer available, as many records were destroyed after the disposals as a matter of routine custom and practice. Where records of the disposals do remain in existence, they have been released to the Public Record Office. Information on the locations of sea disposals of chemical weapons has also been placed in the Library of the House. As to the potential risk posed by chemical weapons, the long-held consensus of international scientific opinion is that munitions on the seabed present no significant risk to safety, human health or the marine environment, provided they remain undisturbed.