To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what representations he received from his French counterpart in respect of the level of radioactive contamination recently discovered in the English Channel off Cap de la Hague; and what plans he has to communicate with the Channel Islands states authorities over the environmental threat posed by the radioactive discharges. [5338]

No recent representation has been received from the French authorities in respect of radioactivity in the English Channel.Monitoring carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in the English Channel shows that the contamination of marine foodstuffs and environmental indicator materials attributable to discharges of radioactivity from the Cap de la Hague reprocessing plant is of negligible radiological significance.