Written question asked by Ann Winterton (Conservative) on Friday, 12 September 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 October 2003. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Monday, 6 October 2003 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what records she maintains of sea temperature around the various sectors of the British Isles; and what movements in temperature have taken place over the last 20 years.

Answer: Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what records she maintains of sea temperature around the various sectors of the British Isles; and what movements in temperature have taken place over the last 20 years. [130366] Mr. Bradshaw: Sea temperature data collected for the waters around the British Isles are collated by such national and international bodies as the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the Hydrographic Service of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). The ICES Working Group on Oceanic Hydrography produces an Annual Ocean Climate Status Summary of the North Atlantic Region, and include long time- series from the seas around the British Isles. Other relevant publications include: Alcock, G. and Rickards, L. (2001) Climate of UK waters at the millennium: Status and trends. Inter-Agency Committee on Marine Science and Technology, IACMST Information Document, 9, 48 pp. Clark, R. A., Fox, C. J., Ben-Hamadou, R. and Planque, B. (2001) A directory of hydrographic and atmospheric datasets for the north east Atlantic and UK shelf seas. CEFAS, Science Series Technical Report, 113, 43 pp. Round Britain most surface temperature series show a warming trend at a rate of between 0.5oC and 1oC per decade since the 1960s. This warming has largely been driven by a strongly positive phase of the fluctuating atmospheric pattern called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).

Secondary information