§ Lord MELCHETTasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why it is no longer the practice of the Department of the Environment to make available details of the number of organisations and individual members of the public that make representations to the department on particular matters of public policy that lie within the department's field of responsibility (col. 1506; Vol. 408; No. 122); whether such information is made available to Ministers, and, if not, how in future do the Government intend to keep themselves fully informed about the strength of public feeling on a particular issue when they have no information on the number of representations that have been received, and no adequate summary of the contents of such representations.
§ Lord MOWBRAY and STOURTONThere has been no change in the practice of the department in making information available where this can be done without the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of staff resources. Ministers are fully informed of representations received on any particular issue and give them due weight.