Carriage of Hazardous chemical substances over United Kingdom Air-space

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs did not have the information requested.

Dear Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,

I am writing to make an open government request for all the
information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental information regulations.

In order to assist you with this request, I am outlining my query as specifically as possible.

If however this request is too wide or too unclear,or is not deemed to fall within your department's remit, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the act, you are required to advise and assist requesters.

Please could you confirm if hazardous chemical substances that can generate toxic gases under certain circumstances, are allowed to be transported, exported or imported over UK air-space and the legal conditions and limitations imposed on such carriage in aircraft.
Specifically, though not exclusively I refer to white phosphorus, which can oxidise to phosphorus pentoxide when not stored in water and zinc phosphide which when damp forms phosphine gas.

I understand that under the act, I should be entitled to a response within 20 working days. I would be grateful if you could confirm that you have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Carroll

Helpline, Defra (CCU), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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Regards

Customer Contact Unit

Defra

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

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Helpline, Defra (CCU), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Dear Mr Carroll

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: Carriage of Hazardous chemical substances

Thank you for your request for information on the carriage of hazardous chemical substances over United Kingdom Air-space, which we received on 6 December 2010. We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I am writing to advise that the information you request is not held by Defra and that it would be more appropriate for you to contact the team in the Department for Transport who deal with the carriage of dangerous goods for a response.

They can be contacted at [email address]. More details of how to make an FOIA request to the Department for Transport can be found on their website: http://www.dft.gov.uk/foi/.

If you have any queries about this please contact me.

Yours sincerely

JENNIFER LONG
Customer Contact Unit
Defra

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