§ Lord Melchettasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why of the seven sites notified to the European Commission on 31st August 1982 under the terms of Article 4 of the EC Directive 79/409 only two include the full area of the SSSI and when will the remaining areas of the Loch Druidibeg A'Machair, Moor House Ribble estuary, Orfordness and Havergate and Swale sites be notified to the Commission.
§ Lord SkelmersdalePre-notification consultations with owners and occupiers can be complex and time-consuming, and in order to minimise delays it was decided, as a first step, to proceed with the notification of areas owned by the Nature Conservancy Council or where owners were known to be agreeable to notification. These areas were, in some cases only, part of a larger Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The Swale site will be notified in the very near future. Notification of the remaining sites to which the noble Lord refers is linked to the SSSI notification programme, and details of these will be forwarded to the Commission for listing as soon as they have been notified or renotified by the Nature Conservancy Council. It is anticipated that the programme will be largely complete by the end of 1987.