§ Lord Gainfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress there has been on the review of the arrangements for dealing with contaminated land which was announced on 24 March 1993 (Official Report, col. WA 633).
§ The Earl of ArranWe are glad to report that the contaminated land review, set up in March 1993 under the chairmanship of the Department of the Environment, has made good progress. Establishing where liability should fall for dealing with damage resulting from historic pollution is complex and the subject is not conducive to easy answers.
Many interested organisations and individuals have set out their views to the review. Such participation has been extremely helpful in drawing out the key issues and options. To build on that, it has been agreed that it would be appropriate to issue a consultation paper, giving all interested parties an opportunity to comment on the preliminary conclusions.
The consultation paper, Paying for Our Past, has been published today—I have placed a copy in the Library of the House. We have invited comments by 3 May. Those views will be taken into account before we reach our final conclusions.
The consultation paper makes clear that we support a "suitable for use" approach to dealing with contaminated land. That is that contaminated land should be treated to deal with unacceptable actual or perceived threats to health, safety or the environment, taking account of the actual or intended use of the site; and, where practical, we should keep or bring such land back into beneficial use. That helps us to minimise pressures on greenfield sites.