§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what functions local authorities discharge under the Local Authority Pollution Control Regime; and(a) what guidance her Department gives to and (b) what assessment she has made of the performance of local authorities in carrying out these functions. [175348]
§ Mr. MorleyLocal authorities are responsible for regulating air emissions from some 17,000 industrial and other installations and regulating a wide range of environmental impacts from up to 1,000 industrial and other installations. These responsibilities involve deciding whether to issue permits to the specified installations and, if so, imposing conditions which represent the best available techniques to minimise pollution. As part of this, local authorities' functions include inspecting regulated premises and maintaining a public register.
The Department issues statutory guidance on what constitutes the best available techniques for the different sectors regulated under these regimes. We are currently reviewing the 80 air pollution control guidance notes and have issue seven guidance notes for sectors regulated for wider impacts with three more in preparation. We published last year a detailed manual on policy and procedures for these regimes. In addition, guidance is issued as the need arises to address specific 231W issues. Officials meet and speak regularly with local authority representative bodies and individual local authority officers to assess guidance needs.
We commissioned an independent review of the performance of local authorities in implementing these regimes last autumn and published the report earlier this month which can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/lapc/performreview0304/index. htm. Officials will be meeting with local authority representative organisations to draw up a joint action plan in response to the review recommendations.