§ Mr. GreenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what progress has been made on drawing up a national register of contaminated land. [158698]
Mr. Robert AinsworthUnder Part HA of the Environment Protection Act 1990, which came into force in England in April 2000, each local authority with borough or district functions has a duty to
cause its area to be inspected from time to time for the purpose of identifying contaminated land".Statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State requires each local authority to take a strategic approach to carrying out this inspection function, and to describe its own particular approach in a written strategy. Under the guidance, these written strategies are required to be 77W published by 20 June 2001. As at the beginning of April this year, the Environment Agency was able to confirm that at least 91 per cent. of authorities had work in hand to develop their inspection strategies.In any case where a local authority formally identifies any land as being contaminated land for the purposes of the Part IIA regime, either that authority or, in some cases, the Environment Agency, has a duty to ensure that appropriate remediation is carried out. Each local authority is required by section 78R of the 1990 Act to maintain a register of details of remediation carried out on contaminated land in its area. The Environment Agency has a parallel duty to compile a register of remediation on sites for which it is the enforcing authority. Part IIA does not, however, include any provisions establishing a single national register.
§ Mr. Derek TwiggTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many acres of derelict land there are in(a) England, (b) the North West Region and (c) Halton; and what percentage of derelict land in (i) the North West Region and (ii) Halton is contaminated. [158500]
§ Ms Beverley HughesThe most recent estimates from the National Land Use Database show that, in 1998, the area of derelict land and buildings was 19,340 hectares in England, 3,400 hectares in the North West Government Office region and 31 hectares in Halton. Information on how much of this land is contaminated is not available.