§ 16. Mr. Robert Cookeasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs what was the average period between the issue of provisional lists and statutory lists of buildings of historic or architectural interest in 1963, 1962, 1961, 1960, 1959, 1958, and 1957.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Mr. F. V. Corfield)The average periods vary from a maximum of four and a quarter years in 1960 to a minimum of two years in 1963, but I will, with permission, circulate the detailed figures for the years concerned in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. CookeWhile thanking my hon. Friend for the details he has given, may I ask if he will not agree that it would be as well if this whole process could be completed as soon as possible?
§ Mr. CorfieldYes, I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. I would hope that we would be able to speed these things up, but he will appreciate that one has to look at these matters against the scale of operations involved and that this varies considerably from area to area.
§ Following are the figures:
| 1957 | 3 years |
| 1958 | 3¼ years |
| 1959 | 3¾ years |
| 1960 | 4¼ years |
| 1961 | 3½ years |
| 1962 | 2¾ years |
| 1963 | 2 years |
§ The improvement in 1962 and 1963 was due to a number of lists with few buildings of interest being dealt with exceptionally quickly.