§ Ms. WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, further to his replies of 4 May,Official Report, columns 247–50, with regard to environmental assessment, he will (a) list those matters taken into account when determining whether environmental assessment is required, (b) give details of the methodology used, (c) specify what criteria and thresholds are used, (d) indicate why some extensions of mineral workings required environmental assessments and others did not, (e) indicate why environment assessment was required in the case of one shopping complex and not in the case of other shopping complexes and retail parks, (f) give details of what information was given to the relevant local authorities following these directions and (g) indicate what information has been given to other local authorities 72W subsequent to these directions in order to help them apply the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988 consistently.
§ Mr. Chope[holding answer 19 June 1989]: In accordance with the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988, environmental assessment is required of all projects of the types listed in schedule 1 to the regulations and of any project of a type listed in schedule 2 which is likely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue of factors such as its nature, size or location. Guidance on which projects are likely to have significant environmental effects so as to require environmental assessment is given in DOE circular 15/88, which also sets out indicative thresholds and criteria to which the Secretary of State has regard when considering whether to direct that assessment is required. Decisions on the need for environmental assessment turn on the facts of individual cases, and locational considerations may lead to different conclusions in respect of similar types of development. The regulations require the Secretary of State to give reasons when he directs that environmental assessment is required. Copies of decision letters are sent to the applicant and to the local planning authority, which is required to make a copy available for public inspection in the place where the planning register is kept. We are considering how best this information can be made more widely available to assist both developers and local planning authorities in the application of these regulations.