§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list, by region(a) all those sewage works which have been granted applications for relaxations of their discharge consents by Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution, (b) all those for which applications were refused and (c) the number of objections to proposed relaxations received by his Department for each sewage works.
§ Mr. Chris PattenI assume that the hon. Member is referring to the applications for time-limited consent which have been submitted in the context of the water industry's capital investment programme for sewage treatment works. No such applications have yet been granted or refused although a number have been withdrawn by the water authorities' successor companies. Temporary consents have been granted pending com-pletion of the process of considering applications and objections to them. Some 10,000 representations have been received as a result of advertising these applications.