To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the latest available figure for the average fine imposed by magistrates courts in the south-west of England for river and harbour pollution.

Information collected by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department shows that, for cases brought under sections 31 or 32 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 as the principal offence, the average fine imposed by magistrates courts in 1988 for water pollution offences in the south-west was £570.