Yesterday in Parliament Claire Baker questioned the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on chemicals used to treat sea lice in farmed fish. Claire’s question and Paul Wheelhouse’s answer can be found below.

Claire Baker: If the aim of increasing production of all farmed fish by 50 per cent by 2020 is achieved, it will lead to a subsequent increase in use of chemical treatments. What will the minister do to ensure that those increase are taken into account when the Government looks at reforming the regulatory system?

Paul Wheelhouse: It is true to say that as the sector grows the amount of fish and the biomass within particular sea lochs will increase, and that the need to introduce medicines to control a larger population of fish will also increase. I accept that, but it is important to note that the increase in the amount of medicines that are being deployed might not translate automatically into an increase in toxicity. People are trying to reduce the toxicity of medicines that are currently used, so the volume of medicines used may increase because they have a lower impact on the environment. I am happy to correspond with Ms Baker on that point.