[holding answer 27 March 2007]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by the Minister for Science and Innovation, Department of Trade and Industry, on 19 March 2007, Official Report, column 629W, on phase out of remaining specialised uses of chlorofluorocarbons in the UK.
The most recent estimates of UK emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the UK conclude that emissions have been decreasing since 1995. For example, emissions of CFC-11 dropped from 2.3 kilotonnes per year in 1995 to 0.6 kilotonnes per year. Similarly, emissions of CFC-12 and CFC-113 have dropped from 3.6 and 1.1 kilotonnes per year in 1995 to 0.5 and 0.2 kilotonnes per year in 2006, respectively.
This is consistent with global trends of emissions of CFCs following the ban in the developed world on production and consumption of CFCs under the Montreal Protocol since 1996, apart from exempt specialised uses agreed by the Parties.
Estimates of UK CFC emissions by source are not available. The most significant source of emissions is likely to be from historic disposal to landfill sites of equipment containing CFCs.
The main source from remaining specialised uses is likely to be from asthma inhalers that use CFCs. In 2006, 59 tonnes of new CFCs were allocated to the UK for production of asthma inhalers.
DEFRA has established continuous observations of CFCs (and other trace gases) at the Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station on the Atlantic Ocean coastline of Ireland. The Met Office uses the observations to estimate the magnitude and spatial distribution of the European emissions. Detailed information on CFC emissions can be found in Manning et al (2003), Journal of Geophysical Research 108, 4405.