§ Lord Lucas of Chilworthasked Her Majesty's Government:
When the regulations under Part I of the Environmental Protection Bill will be issued for consultation.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Baroness Blatch)The Government issued on 24th October draft regulations governing the application procedure for making authorisations under integrated pollution control and local authority air pollution control under Part I of the Bill; the procedure for varying those authorisations; the appeals procedure; and details of the public registers of information. A copy of the regulations, and an accompanying guidance note, has been placed in the Library. Responses are required by 14th December.
The common theme throughout our proposals is the involvement of the public. Subject to the Bill being approved by Parliament and the results of the consultation, the regulations provide that applications for authorisations and substantial variations of those authorisations must be advertised so that the public has an opportunity to comment on the proposals. Those comments will then be considered in determining the application. The regulations also require appeals made under Clause 15 of the Bill to be advertised so that the public has the opportunity to make representations which will be taken into account in determining the appeal. The information about applications for authorisations and variations, and appeals, will be held on the comprehensive public registers of information which are also established under these regulations.
We intend to issue next month a further set of regulations, prescribing the substances and processes for control under Part I of the Bill.