§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what regulations cover radioactively contaminated land(a) owned and (b) managed by his Department. [61965]
§ Mr. IngramAt present there are no regulations covering specifically radioactively contaminated land. However, a consultation paper on the control and remediation of radioactively contaminated land was jointly published by the then Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Welsh and Scottish Offices in February 1998. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is considering the way forward on regulations concerning radioactively contaminated land in the light of the responses to that consultation.
§ Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent studies have been conducted by(a) his Department, (b) non-departmental public bodies responsible to his Department and (c) consultants on behalf of his Department into the clean up of (i) radioactively contaminated land and (ii) land contaminated by non-radioactive toxic pollution. [61963]
§ Mr. IngramIn 1995 the Ministry of Defence embarked on a prioritised programme to assess the land quality across the defence estate. More than 600 land quality assessments have been carried out across the defence estate since the start of the programme. The land quality assessment work carried out to date has indicated that the majority of the defence estate is free of contamination, and where contamination has been identified, it has been predominantly localised and confined to soil horizons. The common contaminants are metals, fuels, oils and lubricants, solvents, and to a lesser extent, asbestos and radionuclides from luminised instruments. Where contamination has been encountered, appropriate management actions have been taken.