Response by the government to the second report from the Agriculture Committee, session 1987-88, 'Chernobyl: the government's reaction' (HC 456)

The government welcomes the Committee's endorsement of its view that no restrictions were necessary on milk and fresh vegetables and of the action level of 1000Bq/kg for sheep meat. The government agrees with the Committee's findings that there was no danger to public health in the UK as a result of the action taken by the government. The recommendations and conclusions of the Committee are mostly accepted with a small number which are not. The points of agreement include the need for better methods of informing the public on radiation levels found, the need to review and revise the derived emergency reference levels, the need for additional monitoring, the marking of sheep, the need for more research into radioactive pathways and the need to improve its capability for the rapid surveillance of large areas of environmental deposition. The points not accepted include the lack of sufficient co-ordination between government departments, food chain safety, the sale of unmarked sheep in Scotland, compensation, monitoring of water and information given to local authorities. (U.K.)