HC Deb 15 October 2001 vol 372 c1083W
Helen Clark

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many environmental appraisals have been produced and held on DEFRA' s central database since it was established, broken down by Government Department. [5771]

Mr. Meacher

Departments are required to publish all free-standing environmental appraisals of policies unless there are overriding reasons for not doing so (for example, security or commercial sensitivities). The Second Annual Report of the Green Ministers Committee, published in November 2000, included a list of free-standing environmental appraisals (Table 4.2). Since publishing this report, the Inland Revenue has carried out one further appraisal, published in 2001: DEFRA has received notification of a further 18 appraisals carried out in DETR up to February 2001.

Total figures by Department
Department Number of published appraisals notified to DEFRA
DETR 45
DTI 4
HMT 2
Joint HMT, C&E, DETR 1
IR 2
MOD 1