§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will reproduce in the Official Report criteria which have been reported to him by the Nature Conservancy Council as having been used in the evaluation of possible sites of special scientific interest which relate to the presence on a regular basis of important populations of those species of rare wild birds listed in schedule 1 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; if he plans further measures on the conservation of wild birds beyond the listing of special protection areas under directive 74/409; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI understand that the main ornithological criteria which the NCC use in evaluating possible SSSIs are:
- (i) if any area contains an important concentration of schedule 1 species, or
- (ii) if any well-defined area contains 1 per cent. or more of the total British breeding population of any native species for five years or more, or
- (iii) if an area supports 1 per cent. or more of the British wintering population of a species on a regular basis, or
- (iv) if an area supports a combination of any species which renders the site worthy of notification in NCC's judgment (NCC is currently revising the formula for determining the significance of these sites to reflect changes in population of certain species).
I have no current plans to introduce further measures for the conservation of wild birds.