§ Mr. Gareth Wardellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will arrange for his Department to collect and publish information on the percentage of the British population exposed to (a) road traffic noise and (b) aircraft noise.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe "Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics", published annually by my Department and available in the Library of the House, includes statistics relating to noise from road traffic and aircraft. While my Department's research programme includes studies aimed at identifying more precisely the nature and scale of noise nuisance from various sources, we have no plans to expand these statistics at present.