§ Mr. PicklesTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the amount of contaminated land that has been restored for beneficial use on an annual basis was, broken down by local authority area, in England and Wales since January 1997. [79596]
§ Mr. MeacherI have been asked to reply.
This information is not held centrally in the form requested, because "beneficial use" is not a criterion in the main regime which helps to secure the remediation of land affected by contamination. From April 2000, Part IIA ("contaminated land") of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 placed local authorities in England under a duty to inspect their areas to identify contaminated land, as defined in the Act, and secure its remediation on the "suitable for use" principle. Some 40 sites have so far been formally identified under this regime, and remediation is underway in some of these cases. The main aim of this regime is environmental protection, rather than future land use, and contaminated sites may well be in beneficial use already.
The majority of remediation, however, takes place as part and parcel of the development of land, regulated through the planning system and building regulations; through urban regeneration programmes including the activities of regional development agencies and English Partnerships; through voluntary action by landowners including many major companies; through enforcement of environmental protection regimes; and through the programme of supplementary credit approvals for local authorities operated by my department. An overview is provided by a recent Environment Agency report, "Dealing with contaminated land in England", copies of which have been placed in the Library.