HC Deb 03 July 1989 vol 156 c67W
Mr. Alton

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what changes his Department will make to the procedure of granting deemed consent to companies following the privatisation of water authorities.

Mr. Howard

[holding answer 26 June 1989]: The arrangement for granting deemed consents to companies was a transitional provision under part II of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 related to those categories of discharge brought under control for the first time. This applied only to applications received by 14 October 1987. There are no plans to reintroduce the procedure for granting deemed consents following privatisation of the water industry.

April-June 1988 July-September 1988 October-December 1988 January-March 1989
(a) Called for restart interview 10,923 10,337 12,308 13,072
(b) Attended restart interview 8,731 8,707 8,434 8,903
(c) Referred to UBO for failing to attend interview 669 775 663 687
(d) Disallowed for failing to attend 56 68 40 67
Restart follow-up interviews (figures also included in totals above)
(e) Called for restart interview 134 235 1,177 1,298
(f) Attended restart interview 47 124 765 884
(g) Referred to UBO for failing to attend interview 2 5 63 114