§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent measures she has taken to clean up contaminated land sites in England and Wales; if she will take steps to recover costs from companies responsible for contaminating land; and if she will make a statement. [16975]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 26 November 2001]: In April 2000 the new contaminated land regime (under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990) came into force in England. It places a duty on local authorities to inspect their areas for contaminated land. The enforcing authority will then establish the appropriate person(s) to bear the costs of remediation, decide on the remediation required, and ensure that it takes place, whether through agreement, or by serving a remediation notice on the appropriate person(s), or by doing the work and then recovering the costs.
In most cases the appropriate persons will be those who caused or knowingly permitted the contamination, but if they cannot be found liability passes to the current owner or occupier unless the problem is solely one of water pollution. There is provision for waiving or reducing liability in certain circumstances, including cases of hardship. In this way, the regime reflects the "polluter pays" principle. It is described in detail in DETR. Circular 02/2000, "Contaminated Land".
The Department's Contaminated Land Supplementary Credit Approval programme provides assistance to local authorities for capital works such as site investigations, and remediation where they are themselves the appropriate person or are unable to recover costs from others.
In addition, there are various other powers to deal with contamination arising from a breach of a current licence or permit. These also follow the polluter pays principle.