§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what costings have been done to assess whether a similar campaign to the Keep Britain Tidy campaign would be(a) timely and (b) prudent. [86020]
§ Alun MichaelENCAMS will play an important role in supporting the Government's agenda of improving the local environment and people's quality of life by running high-profile campaigns each year based around Local Environmental Quality and Litter issues.
Campaigns planned for 2003 include a focus on fly-tipping, car litter, fly-posting and youth litter and these initiatives are in effect a continuation of the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign year on year.
317WI met the director of ENCAMS, Alan Woods (Environmental Campaigns which is the current name of the Tidy Britain Group) today to discuss the organisation's work which is focused on making a real difference at a local level, which is where we need to influence public attitudes and behaviour.
In parallel to the Government's policy to make a significant impact on the antisocial behaviour, litter, graffiti and noise which spoils the quality of lives in so many places, ENCAMS has developed tools which help their local authority partners to target real local problems. These include a set of posters to challenge people who allow their dogs to foul local parks. Evaluation has shown that a significant improvement has been achieved in areas where these have been used as part of a local campaign. We are encouraging ENCAMS to spread information about successful local campaigns so that lessons learned can help to improve the quality of life for people in other areas too. This fits with efforts by Ministers in DEFRA, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Office to give a high profile to tackling quality of life issues nationally while promoting action at the local level in conjunction with the Local Government Associate and other partners.
Joanne Whitaker, ENCAMS5 Director for the North West Region, would be more than happy to meet the hon. Member to talk about the future of local litter campaigns and programmes. More details of ENCAMS campaigns as well as promotional material can be obtained via their website: http://www.encams.org.
§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations she has received about the environmental impact of increased littering and tipping of household waste in(a) urban and (b) rural areas. [86023]
§ Alun MichaelThe Department receives representations on litter and fly tipping from different sectors of society. During the period 1 January 2001 to 1 January 2002, we received 430 representations on litter. During the period January 2001 to the present, we received 180 representations on fly tipping. We do not differentiate between urban and rural representations in correspondence.
§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much the Keep Britain Tidy campaign cost after 1972; and what assessments were made of its impact on reducing litter. [86019]
§ Alun MichaelSince 1972 the programmes and initiatives run as part of the Keep Britain Tidy campaign have cost £37,341,498.
There are regular reviews of the performance of all programmes and campaigns run by the Tidy Britain Group (TBG), now part of an umbrella organisation called Environmental Campaigns (ENCAMS). Under terms set out in the Grant Memorandum they submit a yearly Grant Review document, which examines in detail the effectiveness of every campaign and programme run over the previous year. Also a Financial Management and Policy Review of ENCAMS is carried out, usually at five year intervals, as part of the Government's requirement that all non-departmental 318W public bodies and those like them should be subjected to regular and detailed scrutiny. The last review of ENCAMS took place in 2001.