To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on his Department's policy on fluoridation of drinking water indicating those local authority areas in which fluoride is currently added to water. [14392]
Some 5.5 million people in the United Kingdom receive water where the fluoride content has been artificially increased to a level of one part of fluoride per million of water. Local authority areas do not necessarily receive a discrete water supply, but the health authorities in England whose populations are wholly or partly served by fluoridation schemes are Bassetlaw, North Bedfordshire, Bromsgrove and Redditch, Birmingham Central, Birmingham East, Birmingham North, Birmingham South, Birmingham West, Coventry, Crewe, Dudley, Durham, North West Durham, Gateshead, Hartlepool, North Lincolnshire, South Lincolnshire, Newcastle, Northumberland, Sandwell, Scunthorpe, Solihull, Mid Staffordshire, South East Staffordshire, North Tyneside, North Warwickshire, South Warwickshire, Walsall, Worcester and Wolverhampton.The Government are looking at options for the fluoridation programme and will make an announcement in due course.