§ Dr. Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether his Department has received from the European Commission arty documents listing sites in the United Kingdom of importance for bird conservation.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinMy Department has received from the EC a substantial volume of documentation containing a wide variety of information on habitats of particular importance to the conservation of birds and other wildlife. This has facilitated the identification of some 151 sites which meet the criteria for listing as special protection areas under the EC birds directive and 129 sites which qualify for designation as wetlands and international importance under the Ramsar convention.
The speed of listing or designation, as the case may be, depends on progress on the SSSI renotification programme. We now expect to be able substantially to complete this programme by the end of 1986, and in the meantime I am discussing with the Nature Conservancy 389W Council possible ways of speeding up progress on listing special protection areas under the EC birds directive and designating sites under the Ramsar convention.