Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on the potential merits of revising the action levels for the disposal of dredged material; and when a decision will be made on the outcome.

Defra is reviewing information provided from the Port of Tyne and other stakeholders in response to proposals for changes to Action Levels for sea disposal of dredged sediment, as well as evidence from work carried out by Cefas, and no decision has yet been made. Officials will continue to engage with stakeholders including those from the River Tyne to ensure we fully understand the impacts of the proposals for the region. Before implementing any proposed changes, an impact assessment will be completed. We will communicate the next steps in the review of Action Levels shortly.

The sediment transport pathways in the Tyne means that there is both a legacy contamination issue and transport of pollutants down the catchment where they are contributing to the issues. Action is therefore being taken via the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines Programme to control inputs of metals which pollute more than 150kms of rivers in the Tyne catchment and to alleviate problems in the estuary. This is supported by our proposed target tackling metal pollution under the Environment Act to reduce the length of rivers and estuaries polluted by target substances from abandoned metal mines, which we are currently consulting on.