HC Deb 26 October 1992 vol 212 cc429-30W
Mr. David Porter

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what study his Department has done on the cost implications for local authorities of enforcing and administering the Environmental Protection Act 1990; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Maclean

Discussions between my Department and the local authority associations about the local government finance settlement have covered the cost implications of administering the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The Act provides in some cases for local authorities to charge to recover their costs.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to establish a centralised data bank of successful prosecutions conducted under the duty of care provisions in section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Mr. Maclean

The Home Office keeps records of the numbers of prosecutions in England and Wales and the number resulting in convictions, as notified to it by the courts. Statistics to be kept for offences under the Environmental Protection Act will include separate figures for offences under section 34 of the Act.

I understand that waste regulation authorities, through the co-ordinated local authority database of registered waste carriers (CLADWAC), have set up a system for the exchange of information about convictions for offences prescribed under the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989, for the purposes of waste carrier registration. These prescribed offences include offences under section 34 of the 1990 Act.