[Mr. Edward O'Hara in the Chair] — Buncefield

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 10:20 am on 9 January 2008.

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Photo of David Gauke David Gauke Shadow Minister (Treasury) 10:20, 9 January 2008

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time since the 2006 Finance Bill, Mr O'Hara, although I hope that this will be a slightly quicker and less draining experience for us both. I congratulate my hon. Friend Mike Penning on the way in which he has articulated the views of the people of Hemel Hempstead since the Buncefield explosion on 11 December 2005. Once again, he has demonstrated his passion and thoroughness, as well as his concern for Hemel Hempstead, and he articulated his case very well.

The implications and consequences of the explosion have affected a much wider area than just Hemel Hempstead, including my constituency, and that is not just because the vast majority of my constituents were woken at 6 o'clock in the morning on 11 December. On that day, I attended a function in Tring, which is not far from Hemel Hempstead, and spoke to a constituent who worked on the Maylands estate. He was deeply concerned that he had, in essence, lost his job that very morning.

The impact has also been felt by Dacorum borough council, which my hon. Friend mentioned, and, more widely, by Hertfordshire county council and the Hertfordshire police authority, all of which have had to pick up some of the bill in dealing with the consequences of the explosion. For example, Dacorum borough council is about £78,000 out of pocket even after we take account of the sums that it will have received under the Bellwin formula. The figure for the Hertfordshire police authority is about £300,000 and that for Hertfordshire county council is about £2.5 million. Those are substantial sums for organisations that are not necessarily very large. I do not intend to set out a general case to show that Hertfordshire is often hard done by, although we have learned in the past few days of concerns that Hertfordshire council tax payers may have to pick up some of the cost of the Olympics. That aside, however, the costs involved in dealing with Buncefield are significant and are having an impact on council tax payers and council services, and we should not ignore that.

There are also the costs involved in trying to rebuild the Maylands estate, which was devastated by the Buncefield explosion. That brings me to the statement made by the Minister for Local Government on 17 December 2007, which my hon. Friend mentioned. As the Minister said, the East of England Development Agency had by then provided £4.4 million of financial assistance, and my hon. Friend mentioned that. However, my understanding—I could be wrong, and the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Mr. Dhanda may correct me—is that about £2 million of that money had already been promised to Dacorum and Hemel Hempstead before the Buncefield explosion, so it is not necessarily new money.

There is a wider issue, and we clearly need to look at the financial implications of the way in which we respond to disasters. I am sure that the matter is close to the Under-Secretary's heart, given that he represents Gloucester, which suffered terrible flooding in the summer. Following the summer flooding, money was made available in addition to the funds provided through the Bellwin formula. Even so, there is concern that support has been somewhat slow to reach the areas that were flooded, and local communities are having to pick up the cost of that major disaster. That is a concern in the Dacorum area, which covers not only my hon. Friend's constituency, but much of mine, too.

This is not the first Adjournment debate that we have had on Buncefield; we had one on 19 July 2006. On that occasion, I focused on PFOS, which my hon. Friend mentioned. Subsequently, we received a lengthy and thorough letter from the then Minister for the Environment. The letter was informative and raised a number of points —I counted nearly 40 typographical errors, but that is by the bye. I have a number of questions relating to it, although the Under-Secretary will not be able to respond to them all today. As my right hon. and hon. Friends have said, it is in the nature of such issues that they cut across several Departments, which is why it would be helpful if one Department took responsibility for the issue.

The environmental issues raised by the incident are important. The letter, which was dated 4 August 2006, referred to the Government seeking an EU ban on PFOS, and I would be grateful to know whether any progress has been made on that. There was also talk of the fire and rescue services implementing a voluntary ban on the use of PFOS, and it would be helpful to have an update on that.

The letter also referred to two evaluations of PFOS, one by the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment, which was carried out on behalf of the Health Protection Agency, and the other by the drinking water inspectorate. I would be grateful to know whether any progress has been made on the evaluation of PFOS and what assessment has been made of its dangers or otherwise.

In our earlier debate, my hon. Friend Mr. Clappison and I mentioned concerns about a leak of 800,000 litres of firewater at the Blackbird Lees sewage treatment plant near Radlett. At the time of the then Minister's letter of August 2006, no damage to the aquatic environment had been found, and I would be grateful if Ministers could confirm at some point that that remains the case.

Another issue is of particular relevance not to the Dacorum area, but to the other end of my constituency. Following the Buncefield explosion, much of the firewater was stored at the Maple Lodge sewage plant. In his letter, the then Minister for the Environment said that he shared concerns about the 26 million litres of firewater still being stored seven months after the incident. Indeed, that firewater was not dealt with until June 2007—18 months after the explosion. I followed the issue quite closely, staying in contact with the Environment Agency and Thames Water and visiting the site. My understanding is that much of the blame lies with the oil companies, and there are clearly lessons to be learned about the way in which we should deal with firewater, should we ever be unfortunate enough to face a similar incident again. Clearly, 18 months is too long, and by the end of the process, several of my constituents were complaining about the dreadful smell that the water was causing.

I want, however, to end on a positive note. The way in which the people of the Dacorum and Hemel Hempstead area—whether local authorities, voluntary organisations or individuals—have rallied around has been hugely impressive. They have demonstrated a real sense of community, and I congratulate them on that. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead on all the work that he and they have done collectively to ensure that Hemel Hempstead rallies round and recovers from that dreadful explosion.