Current Petitions

PE444 is from Mr Allan Berry and concerns radioactive substances in Scottish coastal seawater and marine life. The petitioner calls for the Parliament to investigate the amount of radioactive substances throughout the marine food chain, which he thinks have increased in the past decade. A previous response from the Executive explained that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, together with the Food Standards Agency, monitors and reports annually on radioactivity in Scottish waters.Members will see from the more recent responses that SEPA and the FSA take the view that a comprehensive and effective regime is in place for monitoring radioactivity in the marine environment and in the marine food chain. They report that the levels of radionuclides that are present do not pose a risk to public health and are in decline.Contrary to the claim in the petition that current reports from Norway show that amounts of radioactive substances there are up to 10 times higher than they were in 1994, SEPA refers to a European Community report that shows a significant reduction in such substances in European surface waters. I am interested in members' views—Interruption. I am not sure what that extraneous noise is—is it from somebody's pager?

I dare not invade the privacy of a lady's handbag to switch it off. The pager will probably go silent in due course. Does anybody have views on the petition?

The statement is at the bottom of SEPA's letter. The issue comes down to who we believe. As SEPA is the authority involved, we must take its view. Does the committee agree to take no further action?