North Sea Vessel Collision

Ian Lavery Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mike Kane]

The hon. Member is right to raise that. I had a conversation late last night on that subject with the Minister responsible for nature, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry East (Mary Creagh). The Met Office has told us that theoretical models are used to plot potential movement of the smoke plume, which is similar to the way that it forecasts weather. Air quality monitoring can be done by onshore monitoring stations, such as the one at Immingham, which is closest to the site. The immediate concern is to stop the fire so that we can assess the pollution. As soon as the fire is out, inspectors can move nearer or move in to assess the extent of the spill—if there is a spill—and then we can begin to deploy the relevant resources to tackle that spill.

[Ian Lavery (Blyth and Ashington) (Lab)]

My constituency is on the north-east coast, probably about 150 miles from this horrendous disaster. Can the Minister say whether there has been an initial assessment on how it happened and where the pollution might move to? Is there a potential threat to the coastline of the north-east of England?

[Mike Kane]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. As I have said, the Met Office is modelling the wind situation at the moment. We need to get the fire out on the Solong. Once that is done, we can make a further assessment of what is required and in which direction any pollution—if there is any—is moving, and we will deploy our assets to tackle that when we know that for sure.