asked the Secretary of State for Trade whether the Government will consider setting up a standard procedure whereby oil from tankers which break up off the British coast, and the oil of which is as a result a threat to the coast, is burnt immediately and, if necessary, the tanker's hull destroyed by means of explosives.

We intend to study further the possibilities of burning any oil remaining in a wrecked tanker. There are, however, substantial difficulties and objections to dealing with a casualty by this method. On present information it seems unlikely that we could adopt burning as our standard response to such situations.