§ 11.14 a.m.
§ Lord EzraMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what will be the role of existing environmental organisations in the new initiative associated with the name of Mr. Richard Branson.
§ The Minister of State, Department of the Environ-ment (Lord Elton)My Lords, as my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment announced on Friday, 20th June, he has invited a number of established voluntary organisations to act as agents in launching and running an environmental improvement initiative. He has promised a full statement in July when these arrangements have been completed.
§ Lord EzraMy Lords, would the noble Lord not agree that the existing environmental organisations have done an excellent job within limited resources, and could have done more had more resources been available? Would he therefore indicate whether under this new initiative such additional resources will be made available to them?
§ Lord EltonMy Lords, I am glad to acknowledge the very good work done by a number of organisations in this field. Details of the funding, as of everything else, will be be given in the July statement. I can say now that it is hoped that 5,000 MSC community programme places can be filled and that there will be some DoE resources available in addition to that.