Breach Of North Sea Dumping Agreement

EDM number 749 in 1989-90, proposed by Archy Kirkwood on 16/03/1990.

That this House condemns the revelation by the British Government that chemical waste dumping in the North Sea by British companies will continue until at least 1993, in spite of the ending of sewage sludge dumping as completely unacceptable; regrets that the British Government's policy of permitting the continuation of environmentally damaging activities in the North Sea brings us into disrepute in the international community; suggests that the issuing of trumpeted Press releases heralding action fools nobody when the Government creatively uses the small print to escape its obligations; and calls for the Department of the Environment to take over the responsibility for regulating sea dumping from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, as they cannot possibly do a worse job, for the dumping of industrial wastes at sea to be ended immediately and for all current licences to be revoked, and for sewage sludge dumping to be outlawed from the 1st January 1993.

This motion has been ammended, see 1398A1.

This motion has been signed by a total of 16 MPs.