HC Deb 21 February 1996 vol 272 cc135-6W
Ms Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many processes are authorised for integrated pollution control by Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution under part A of the Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations 1991; how many are authorised for local authority air pollution under part B of the regulations; how many authorisations remain to be determined; and what is his estimate of the additional number of processes that will require authorisation under the requirements of the integrated pollution prevention and control directive. [15845]

Mr. Clappison

The number of IPC authorisations under regulation by Her Majesty's inspectorate of prisons under part A of the Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations 1991 is 1,863, as at 12 February 1996 and 17 part B authorisations are regulated by HMIP.

A further 246 applications have been received. Of these, 177 meet the requirements of the regulations and are in the process of determination. The remaining 69 have yet to be examined in detail.

Under part B of the regulations up to 31 March 1994, 10,535 processes were authorised for local authority air pollution control and 1,726 were on hand to be determined.

I estimate that the integrated pollution prevention and control directive will cover between 3,500 to 4,000 processes which are not covered by IPC. Of these, approximately 1,600 are already covered by local authority air pollution control. The remaining processes consist of between 1,000 and 1,500 intensive farms, a number of large food and drink processing plants, plus small numbers of other processes not covered by either IPC or LAAPC.