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10.13 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. James Clappison): I should make it clear at the outset that the Government have a commitment to openness and making environmental information available to the public. We have a good record over many years of doing just that.
National legislation has created more than 50 statutory public registers containing environment information. The Department of the Environment has listed them in a booklet, "Environment Facts: a guide to using public registers of environmental information", which was published in 1995. Public registers are a helpful way in which to provide access to environmental information. Potential users are made aware of what information is available and where it can be inspected, and they are not charged for it.
The Government also provide a wide range of more aggregated information in a variety of publications about the state of the environment and the factors that
impinge on it. The Department of the Environment publishes an annual "Digest of Environmental Statistics", which brings together a wide range of information drawn from a large number of more detailed reports. That is supplemented by a periodic publication, "The UK Environment", which is broader in coverage, less technically oriented and aimed at a wider audience, especially schools and further education establishments. The next edition will be published in 1999.
This year, we are also introducing a new pocket-sized booklet that provides key facts about the environment. A pilot edition was produced for internal use in 1995. I shall let the hon. Member for Truro (Mr. Taylor) have copies of it and a number of other publications that I am sure he will find interesting.
In March, the United Kingdom became one of the first countries to publish a set of indicators of sustainable development, which illustrates changes over the past 20 years or so in some 120 key issues and objectives. They are a preliminary set of indicators, on which we want to obtain views so that they can be developed further. In the longer term, we intend to use them to highlight key messages and monitor our performance against our stated objectives in the sustainable development strategy.
The indicators have been widely welcomed at home and abroad as a manifestation of our commitment to open reporting. It may also interest the hon. Member for Truro to know that, later this year, we intend to add the indicators of sustainable development to the Department of the Environment's world wide web site. Increasingly, information is being published in electronic form as well as on paper.
The Government's commitment to openness goes wider. In 1992, they enacted the environmental information regulations, which give the public a right of access to environmental information held by central and local government and a large number of bodies under their control. As with all freedom of access regimes, the right of access is sensibly restricted on a small number of occasions.
It is now more than three years since the regulations came into force. Although records have not been kept of the number of requests for environmental information, there is no doubt that the regulations and the Government's code of practice on open government have resulted in a large increase in the supply of environment information to the public.
The Government have actively promoted their policy of openness. For instance, in 1992, the Department ofthe Environment published "Green Rights and Responsibilities", which promised the citizen a right of access to environmental information. A pamphlet explaining the new access rights under the regulations was produced in 1993, and about 190,000 have been distributed to citizens advice bureaux, libraries, local authorities and other bodies, and directly to members of the public who have asked for a copy. That was followed in 1994 by a model local environment charter, "Your Council and the Environment", which detailed, among other things, the citizen's rights to environmental information from local authorities.
I have described some of the measures that the Government have taken to disseminate environmental information to members of the public. We are not complacent, and are open to suggestions about the way in which dissemination can be improved. As I said, I shall send the hon. Member for Truro some of the publications that I mentioned.
The hon. Member drew specific attention to the solicitors Toller Beattie. I am of course aware of the correspondence in which he has been involved, and the considerable correspondence in which the firm has been involved. I am aware that that firm has made very many requests of my Department for environmental information over the past two years. I understand that it has similarly requested environmental information from other Departments, the Environment Agency and local authorities.
Its requests of my Department have been addressed to a number of different branches and directorates. As the hon. Member for Truro said, the firm has particularly requested information on water pollution policy. One section alone of my Department's water and land directorate has dealt with almost 90 letters that have been addressed or referred to it in the past 21 months. I concede that not all those responses have been within the time limit specified within the regulations. That is perhaps regrettable, but there has been a large volume of correspondence. I can tell the hon. Gentleman that only comparatively rarely has information been refused, in accordance with the legitimate exceptions provided for in the regulations.
I understand that my Department has offered to hold a meeting with Toller Beattie to discuss its requirements for environmental information. I think that that would be a
sensible way to proceed. I appreciate that Toller Beattie is seeking information on bathing waters, to which it may or may not be entitled.
I am sure that the hon. Member for Truro would be interested, as would his constituents--I am not sure whether Toller Beattie would be--in the most recent statistics relating to bathing water quality in the south-west. Speaking from memory, I think that the statistics show a picture of improvement. The hon. Gentleman is not dissenting, so that suggests that that is the case. His constituents, and possibly Toller Beattie, have something to welcome there. I will let the hon. Gentleman have information relating to that.
Mr. Matthew Taylor:
I hope that the Minister will feel able to respond to the question of the information tribunal.
Mr. Clappison:
I am afraid that, for somebody seeking more information about the environment, the hon. Gentleman's Adjournment motion was not a good start. It did not contain the necessary information. It states that the hon. Gentleman wished
Question put and agreed to.
"to raise the subject of the availability of environmental information."
The hon. Gentleman mentioned tribunals during his speech, which I will read with interest. I will also read the interesting and complex legal arguments that he advanced. From what he said, I think that he has had his answer already in another place. Perhaps, on this occasion, a better start could have been made to seeking environmental information.
Adjourned accordingly at twenty-one minutes past Ten o'clock.
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