Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of harmful algae blooms in (a) English territorial waters, (b) territorial waters under the responsibility of the devolved Administrations in the UK and (c) territorial waters in the Overseas Territories in each of the last five years.
The Environment Agency (EA) routinely examine remote sensing images to understand where large plankton blooms are occurring, and they screen these images for blooms that are potentially harmful. This data informs bathing water quality assessments and helps further our understanding of harmful algal blooms.
On the ground, monitoring of harmful algal blooms in the territorial waters of England and the Devolved Administrations ensures that harvested shellfish is safe for human consumption. Monitoring is undertaken at a frequency defined by the risk for the area and reported up to weekly for any one site.
Since monitoring harmful algal blooms is to ensure shellfish safety and protect human health, we do not make a routine assessment of the number of blooms in the territorial waters of England and the Devolved Administrations. Environmental matters are a devolved responsibility in the Overseas Territories and as such my department does not undertake estimates of harmful algal blooms in their territorial waters.