§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the effectiveness of public registers of information on environmental pollution and potential ecological contamination since the system was introduced last year.
§ Mr. BaldryImproved public access to information has been an important part of Government policies on the environment.
Part I of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 establishes public registers of information about processes coming under the new integrated pollution control and local authority air pollution control systems, which took effect from 1 April 1991.
Public registers of prescribed information under Part II of the Act will be established in April 1993.
A new public register of information on genetically modified organisms will be set up in 1992 to coincide with the coming into effect of part VI of the Act and associated regulations on which consultations are currently in progress.
Section 143 of the Act, placing a duty on local authorities to compile and maintain registers of land which may be contaminated, is not yet in force. Regulations setting out detailed requirements for these registers will be laid early in 1992.
Registers maintained under other statutes cover subjects including the control of water pollution, water 69W supply quality, industrial air pollution and licensed dumping at sea. In addition, the Government propose that Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution will analyse the data it receives to produce from 1992 aggregate totals of releases by substance, by category of process and by location in an annual inventory.