HL Deb 29 January 1990 vol 515 cc151-2WA
Lord Kennet

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the Secretary of State for the Environment will now begin keeping a record of the occasions on which he decides to reject the advice of English Heritage about listed buildings.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Lord Hesketh)

My right honourable friend sees no need to keep such a record. Every case is decided on its merits and it is the particular combination of factors which counts, not a single test of whether or not to accept English Heritage's advice. Crude statistics of rejections would say nothing about the comparative importance of individual cases and would therefore be largely meaningless.