§ Mr. BrandrethTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made in implementing the system of local authority air pollution control introduced under part 8 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
§ Mr. YeoBy the end of March this year, some 13,000 applications for authorisation had been received by local authorities, of which over 5,500 had been decided. Only 12 appeals were received by my Department during the first two years of operation of the new air pollution controls.
I am pleased to say that the evidence from the data that have been collected and from a review of 25 local authorities conducted by my Department is that local authorities are getting on well with tackling their new responsibilities. None the less, there remains a heavy workload to determine the outstanding applications and to ensure that the necessary improvement are made by operators.