HC Deb 19 June 1991 vol 193 cc196-7W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps have been taken by Her Majesty's Government to co-ordinate and refine land use and economic activity classifications used by the Central Statistical Office, the Ordnance Survey, the Valuation Office, Her Majesty's Land Registry and his Department, respectively, since the report "Handling Geographic Information", prepared under the chairmanship of Lord Chorley.

Mr. Yeo

[holding answer 13 June 1991]: No specific steps have been taken to co-ordinate and refine land use and economic activity classifications, but the following closely related initiatives are under way.

In line with the Government's response to the report "Handling Geographic Information", all the bodies mentioned are represented on the inter-departmental working group on the tradeable information initiative established to facilitate the wider availability of Government-held spatially referenced data.

The national land use classification—NLUC—published in 1975, is commended by my Department for adoption in any process of compiling land use data. The categories used in my Department's land use change statistics—LUCS—are based on the NLUC, modified to take account of what it is feasible to record from Ordnance Survey maps. None of the other bodies uses a land use classification, except the Ordnance Survey in its work for my Department on the LUCS.

The economic activity classification used by the Central Statistical Office and my Department is the standard industrial classification. Member states of the European Community are required under regulation 3037/90 to adopt a new economic activity classification by 1993. None of the other bodies uses an economic activity classification.

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