Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in their investigation into pyridine in the River Tees.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra is not progressing any further investigative work into the presence of pyridine in the River Tees at this time. We are however finalising the development and validation of a detection method to reliably quantify the amounts of pyridine in crab tissues. Once completed, we will use this test to assess the levels of pyridine in environmental crab tissues associated with the impacted and non-impacted areas, to better understand the significance of pyridine in crustacea, including the potential for its endogenous production post-mortem.
The Government Chief Scientific Adviser has conveyed an independent external expert panel to review all the scientific evidence relating to this issue and report published on Friday 20 January.
Defra scientists continue to engage with the wider academic community with regard to ongoing research and development work into the ecological status of the Tees and the wider North Sea.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government who has been appointed to the expert panel established to investigate pyridine in the River Tees.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The expert panel announced in November has been convened and is made up of experts from outside government and its agencies, with representatives from over 10 leading marine science organisations. They will assess the evidence and consider all explanations for the mortality of crabs and lobsters that occurred in 2021, using all available data and informed by wider scientific research and expert opinions. The panel’s findings, and details of its membership and terms of reference, has now been published.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to monitor pyridine in the River Tees; and what assessment they have made of whether preparation for the Teesside Freeport is safe to fishing interests.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Environment Agency carries out routine monitoring of water quality in the River Tees, which includes testing for Pyridine. Monthly samples are taken at 10 locations within the Tees Estuary and adjacent coastal waters.
The Tees South Bank Quay licence application required a full Environmental Impact Assessment under the Marine Work (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (2017) and Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009), which included an assessment of likely significant effects to fish ecology and fishery receptors. Various mitigation measures were stipulated on the licence and the full detail of the licensing and consultation process can be found on the MMO Public Register.
Meanwhile, the Marine Management Organisation uses internationally accepted guidelines including from The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic 1992 (OSPAR) to help inform its licensing decisions.
The UK is a contracting party to OSPAR, and OSPAR guidance is used to identify chemicals for testing. Pyridine is not routinely measured in sediment, and there are currently no plans to monitor for pyridine in sediments generally, including for dredge and disposal applications. Pyridine is not listed as a Chemical for Priority Action (contaminant of concern, based on persistency, liability to bioaccumulate, and toxicity) by either OSPAR (https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/hasec/hazardous-substances/priority-action) [copy attached to this answer] or the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will ensure that no dredging will take place in the River Tees until after (1) publication, and (2) consideration, of the expert panel report.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The MMO uses a weight of evidence approach to inform its decision making and, to date, there is no robust scientific evidence to suspend the marine licences for this work. The MMO have conducted marine licence inspections on the dredging works in question and following this they remain satisfied that the works are being conducted in line with the relevant marine licence(s). Inspections on the licenced activities will continue on a periodic basis throughout the length of the licence. The findings of the Expert Panel will steer consideration of further action.
Capital and maintenance dredging are common activities around the coast of England and have taken place on the Tees for many decades. The decisions on dredging methodologies and disposal of dredge material are fundamental to the continued operation of ports and associated industries. Requirements of dredging techniques may be entirely dependent on local conditions, and an assessment is made pre-determination as a part of the licensing process as to the type of dredging allowed to take place and any mitigation required is included as licence conditions.
Asked by: Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will list those persons appointed as chairs of non-departmental public bodies by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The following table lists the Chairs of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs non-departmental public bodies:
Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment | Prof Rosemary Hails |
Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board | Sir Peter Kendall |
Consumer Council for Water | Alan Lovell |
Environment Agency | Sir Philip Dilley |
Joint Nature Conservation Committee | Prof Chris Gilligan |
Marine Management Organisation | Sir Bill Callaghan |
Natural England | Andrew Sells |
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew | Marcus Agius |
Science Advisory Council | Prof Charles Godfray |
Sea Fish Industry Authority | Elaine Hayes |
Veterinary Products Committee | Prof William (Bill) Reilly |