What happened on 10th July 2023 - With your comments in the Web
On Monday, it turned out that a UK government regulator has failed to publish a key survey of oil and chemical spills in British seas for three years because the expert who compiled it retired . The body responsible for pollution in UK waters, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), used to publish an annual survey of all spills of “hazardous and noxious substances” into the sea, by boats and the oil industry. As well as making this data available to the public, the MCA says the survey helps its counter pollution team do its job. Spills of oil and chemicals at sea have the potential to kill wildlife, destroy habitats and contaminate beaches. But the report – which was compiled by the expert Advisory Council on Protection of the Sea (ACOPS) for the previous 40 years – has not been published since 2020, with the most recent available data from 2017. In response to a freedom of information (FOI) request by The Ferret asking for new data, the MCA said the gap in reporting...