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Contaminated Brownfield Sites

: There is guidance now and the SGVs are being updated to make them more sophisticated because it is recognised that that is a particular problem. The SGV taskforce has addressed risk levels, which the hon. Gentleman talked about. The taskforce considers that there are two clear and urgent needs in relation to SGVs. First, there is a need to restate the basis on which SGVs are derived and presented. That is because of the perception of a degree of confusion among users about the relationship of SGVs and the health criteria values, which relate to toxicology to the relevant legal test in the part IIA regime, which is the test of the unacceptable intake in table B of chapter A of the statutory guidance. That is one of the points that the hon. Gentleman has been making and the taskforce clearly recognises it as one of the priorities for it to address. Secondly, the taskforce is exploring the production of additional technical material that will enable assessors to address more directly the legal test of deciding whether an intake is unacceptable. Those are complex issues legally, in relation to the definition of terms, and technically, in relation to toxicology. Our discussion illustrates why this country has a legacy of brownfield sites that have been left undeveloped for many years. Until recently there was no guidance on brownfield sites. We are having a fairly complicated technical discussion about the present guidance, so hon. Members will understand the difficulties that arose in the past, when there was no guidance at all. A step forward has been taken but I accept that some issues need to be addressed.