Clause 15 - Monitoring information: registers
Waste and Emissions Trading Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Mr Michael Meacher (Minister of State (the Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham West and Royton, Labour)
I hope that I can give the hon. Gentleman a full assurance on that matter. We must rid ourselves of the perplexing descriptions of the allocating authority and the monitoring authority, and agree that what we are discussing is the regulations that the Secretary of State will issue to the Environment Agency on how the information will be made available to the public. I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman that whether the word used is ''common'' or ''constant'', the information should be produced in a standardised way; it should not vary unreasonably across the country, and it should certainly be comprehensible. That covers the points that we have already mentioned.
I am glad to reassure the hon. Gentleman that we agree on the importance of the public being, as far as is possible, participants in the process and on the need for people to be aware of what is happening in their area. Indeed, some of the more informed or interested people, who are sometimes members of non-governmental organisations, should be able to ask questions based on the information and thereby hold the relevant local bodies to account. I am pleased to reassure the hon. Gentleman that, to enable that to
happen, we intend to ensure that the registers are common—or constant—and comprehensible.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 15 ordered to stand part of the Bill.