WESTM NS TER HAUL
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DENIS HOWELL has not got the easiest job in the Government. As Minister of State for the Environment, just one step down from the Department's big boss, Secretary of State Peter Shore, his brief is wide.
No trouble about his work as Minister for Sport . . . he has been a first-class soccer referee. But when he has to deal with archaeology, bird sanctuaries, gipsies and lead in petrol — as he has just been doing in the Commons — then not even help from skilled Civil Servants can necessarily prepare him to answer all the questions put to him.
Not that this was the reason why he failed to answer the most searching question about vehicle exhausts. After all, as he explained, he did not think anyone in the country could answer it.
It seemed a simple enough query — was he satisfied that a maximum level of 0.40 grammes of lead in a litre of petrol would remove all risks to health?
That level in 1981 would ensure that the total lead emission from vehicle exhausts would remain stable at the 1971 level was all Mr Howell would venture.
That plainly did not satisfy questioner Victor Goodhew, so he was told that research was continuing with urgency and thoroughness.
And then — to reassure anyone spluttering in a cloud of exhaust fumes? — the Minister noted that food and drink produced greater quantities of lead in the body than breathing.
Warming to his subject Mr Howell praised as "commendable" the Government's record over the whole range of research into lead levels in food, drink and petrol, forestalling any ripostes by adding "but we are certainly not complacent about it."
In the not too distant future he — and everyone else — will have more facts on which to judge whether the Government should or should not be complacent. Mr Howell announced that the survey of lead levels at the roadside in five cities had been completed, was being evaluated and , would be published as soon as possible.
"We hope to reduce the level of lead in petrol as and when we can" he declared boldly.
On second thoughts (unworthy ones?), it could be that those last five words will one day be recalled if the Government finds it necessary to resist the demands of the environmentalists.