§ Mr. HansonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the ancient woodland inventory undertaken by the Nature Conservancy Council.
§ Mr. HansonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to establish a register of ancient woodland in the United Kingdom.
§ Sir Paul BeresfordI have been asked to reply.
An inventory of ancient woodland in Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland, was produced by the Nature Conservancy Council between 1981 and 1991. Copies of this, arranged by county in England and Wales, and by district in Scotland, have been widely distributed to local authorities, the Forestry Commission, to conservation bodies and to landowners' representatives such as the Timber Growers Association.
Since 1991, responsibility for maintaining and revising the inventories has been passed to English Nature, the Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage. These bodies update the information on particular sites in the light of new survey information, including information provided by the organisations and individuals to whom the inventory has gone. Assessment of and amendments to the inventory are thus a continuous process. Information about individual sites or areas is available on request.
Average number of school meals taken by day pupils in maintained primary and secondary schools in England on the census date in January: 1990 to 1994 (provisional) LEA Maintained Primary Grant Maintained Primary LEA Maintained1Secondary Grant Maintained1Secondary 1990 96 —2 274 373 1991 94 —2 286 363 1992 95 117 300 384 1993 97 139 321 384 19943 100 123 331 422 1 excludes sixth form colleges which ceased to be classified as schools from 1 April 1993 2 There were no grant-maintained primary schools in 1990 or 1991 3 provisional