Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by how much levels of pollution have changed in the UK territorial seas in the last five years.

George Eustice

Inputs into the marine environment of the six most hazardous polluting substances (cadmium, lindane, mercury, zinc, copper and lead) have fallen significantly over the last 25 years. In the five years to 2013 inputs of five of the substances have declined while mercury inputs were stable. These trends are reported in the UK’s Biodiversity Indicators, published this month.

The volume of oil accidentally spilled varies widely from year to year, is generally small and of relatively minor significance, with no major spills in UK waters having occurred over the last five years.

Assessments of contaminants in the recent UK Marine Strategy Part 3, published in December, have shown that most problems (i.e. where concentrations or biological effects parameters exceed assessment thresholds) are local in nature and close to the sources, particularly in industrialised estuaries and coasts, and largely caused by historic pollution.