---

ENVIRONMENT

Publicity

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what promotional and public information campaigns his Department is (a) currently running and (b) planning to run during the next six months; and for each campaign (i) how much it will cost, (1) in total and (2) to his Department, (ii) what agencies or bodies are undertaking the work and (iii) what is its planned duration. [7412]

Sir Paul Beresford: My Department produces a range of public information programmes related to its policy responsibilities. Advertising is placed through the Central Office of Information and other publicity work is competitively tendered using a variety of suppliers. Estimated publicity expenditure for the current financial year by subject area is as follows:

	£000
Environmental and Energy Efficiency	2,509
Sustainable Development	2,200
Urban Regeneration and Private Finance	308
Competitiveness and the Environment	272
Housing	250
Planning	200
Water	77
Construction sponsorship	53
Property and Building	32
Total	5,901

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much his Department has spent on promotional or public information campaigns in each of the last five years; and how much he estimates will be spent on these campaigns during the (i) current and (ii) next financial years. [7535]

Current planned expenditure for 1996-97 is £5.9 million. Plans for 1997-98 have yet to be finalised.

Sir Paul Beresford: The figures for expenditure on public information campaigns in each of the last five years are detailed in the table:

	£000
1991-92	2,700
1992-93	14,697
1993-94	12,108
1994-95	8,878
1995-96	7,383

Beaches

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list for each year since 1991 those beaches in each region which complied with the EU bathing water standard guide for (a) total and faecal coliforms, (b) faecal streptococci, and (c) coliforms and faecal streptococci combined. [7434]

Mr. Clappison: The information requested has been placed in the Library of the House because of the volume of data involved.

10 Dec 1996 : Column: 92

Tooting Bec Psychiatric Hospital

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to make a decision on the proposals for the development of the former Tooting Bec psychiatric hospital site. [7643]

Sir Paul Beresford: The Secretary of State has decided, on the information before him, not to exercise his powers under section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and call in the planning application to develop housing on the former Tooting Bec hospital site.

Asbestos

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to ensure that products which contain asbestos are individually and permanently marked as such. [7900]

Sir Paul Beresford: The requirements regarding the labelling of products containing asbestos are laid down in the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 1985 as amended in 1992 and the Asbestos Products (Safety) Regulations 1985 as amended in 1987. There are no plans to introduce any further labelling measures at present.

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what measures the Government have taken to encourage the use of substitutes for asbestos-containing products. [7898]

Sir Paul Beresford: Existing legal measures encourage the use of substitutes for products containing asbestos. These range from widespread prohibitions on the supply of products containing asbestos to those which govern the use of asbestos at work. The Health and Safety Executive and local authorities continue to enforce these regulations, and in particular regulation 8 of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 1987 which requires every employer to prevent exposure to asbestos by substitution with safer materials where reasonably practicable.

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what statistics he has collated on levels of asbestos use in London since 1986. [7902]

Sir Paul Beresford: No statistics on the levels of asbestos use in London since 1986 have been collated by the Department of the Environment.

Gipsy Sites

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many schemes for permanent gipsy sites agreed under the former gipsy site policy he is currently obliged to finance; and if the financial arrangements apply only to agreements made under the former policy. [7782]

Mr. Robert B. Jones: There remains 88 schemes for permanent gipsy sites which were submitted by local authorities before the power to pay gipsy sites grant--section 70 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980--was repealed on 3 November 1994. Of those, 83 have received formal grant approval from the Secretary of State; the remaining five have yet to be determined. The power to pay grant applies only to applications submitted in accordance with departmental guidance issued to local authorities under the 1980 Act.

10 Dec 1996 : Column: 93

Marine Pollution

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what communications he has had with the Marine Conservation Society in regard to pollution arising from the offshore oil and gas industry. [7894]

Mr. Clappison: My colleagues and I have had no communications with the Marine Conservation Society on that issue.

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what licences to discharge radioactive materials, collected during operations, to sea have been issued to offshore oil and gas exploration drilling and storage platforms. [8359]

Mr. Clappison: Authorisations to discharge to sea the materials containing naturally occurring radionuclides arising during offshore oil and gas exploration, drilling and storage operations are issued under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993. The Environment Agency holds records of authorisations issued for the English and Welsh sectors on the public register at its Warrington office--Richard Fairclough house, Knutsford road, Warrington, WA4 1HG. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency holds records of authorisations issued for the Scottish sector at its Aberdeen office--Greyhope house, Greyhope road, Torry, Aberdeen, AB11 9RD.

Health and Safety

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many health and safety inspectors there were in (a) 1986 and (b) 1995. [7901]

Sir Paul Beresford: The Health and Safety Executive employed the following number of health and safety inspectors in:

Year (1 April)	Number of inspectors
1986	1,231.50
1995	1,477.60

Figures given are full-time equivalent counts: part-timers were counted as half units until 1 April 1995; since then they are counted on the basis of the proportion of a full week that they work. For information there are also a broadly comparable number employed by local authorities.

Environmental Information Appeals Tribunal

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what immediate plans he has to seek an early parliamentary opportunity to introduce legislation to establish an environmental information appeals tribunal. [7932]

Mr. Clappison: I have no immediate plans to introduce legislation to establish an environmental information appeals tribunal. The recently published first report of the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities on freedom of access to information on the environment recommends different procedures, which are being carefully considered.

10 Dec 1996 : Column: 94

Christmas Expenditure

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how much his Department will spend on Christmas trees and decorations this year; how many Christmas trees will be bought for his Department's headquarters; and what are the type and country of origin of the trees; [7557]

(2) how much his Department plans to spend on celebrating Christmas and the new year. [7581]

Sir Paul Beresford [holding answer 6 December 1996]: Total expenditure by my Department, including its agencies and the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive on Christmas trees and decorations is expected to be around £3,000. This includes one tree bought for the Department's headquarters building in Marsham street. It has not been possible to determine the type and country of origin of every tree, but all those can be verified, including the tree in Marsham street, an English spruce are British. Beyond that and official Christmas cards, the Department is not planning to spend any more money celebrating Christmas or the new year.

---