§ Lord Brougham and Vauxasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have received the Ove Arup report on the monitoring of the use of the Evaluative Framework for the disposal of colliery soil.
§ Baroness Blatch:Although there has been a decrease in the amount of colliery spoil produced in recent years, its disposal is still a problem.
Version 1 of the Evaluative Framework, published in 1987, was designed to assist decision-making on future disposal schemes for deep mine colliery spoil. It has encouraged systematic investigation of both environmental and financial aspects of alternative options.
The Department of the Environment commissioned research to monitor the effectiveness of the framework and it has now been modified to include the lessons learnt. The contractors have now submitted their main research report to the Department of the Environment and published Version 2 of the Evaluative Framework. I have today placed copies in the House Library. I am sure that the publication of this updated version will improve its usefulness to both the local authorities and the coal industry and will help resolve many of the problems experienced.