Written question asked by Andrew Gwynne (Labour) on Monday, 11 January 2016, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 13 January 2016. It was answered by Andrea Leadsom (Conservative) on Monday, 18 January 2016 on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Chernobyl

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, which areas of the UK show recent evidence of residual radiation from the Chernobyl disaster.

Answer: Levels of radioactivity in the environment, including residual radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster, are monitored jointly by the environmental and food standards agencies for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Results are reported annually in the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE) series which is available on the www.gov.uk website. The latest RIFE report confirmed that levels of residual contamination from Chernobyl are negligible even in the areas of the UK that received the largest fallout, namely upland areas where heavy rain fell in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

Secondary information