Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the likelihood of a major contamination of the Severn Estuary downhill of the Radcliffe Bay Petroleum Storage Depot in North Somerset.

The Radcliffe Bay Petroleum Storage Depot is subject to the Control of Major Accident Hazard (COMAH) Regulations 2015 at Upper Tier. This requires it to produce a Safety Report that includes an assessment of the hazards posed by the site to its environmental surroundings including the Severn Estuary, the measures in place to prevent an accident and a plan for mitigatory action, including clean-up, in the event of an accident. Through these Regulations the Environment Agency is working with the site to ensure that adequate and appropriate risk assessments are in place.