I agree with the hon. Lady's early remarks; we need a national noise reduction strategy. I welcome the work that the Government have done on noise nuisance. We know that that work has been extensive—it is not the sort of problem that one solves overnight—and was important in enabling DEFRA to meet its objectives for protecting the environment and enhancing quality of life and public health. We need action to follow that research, and we want to press that point with the Government: having carried out their noise nuisance research programme, where will it lead?

We have talked about specific sorts of noise, but discussion has been limited. We have neighbour and neighbourhood noise, and we need to know more about the sort of noise that we get from industrial and commercial premises. In particular, we need to know more about lower-level noise and vibration, as noise is not all the same.

Transport and traffic noise is a problem. Some of us have constituents who live next to busy roads or roads that have recently become busy, such as the A3 as it runs through my constituency. The character of that area has changed enormously, as traffic flows have changed and raised the noise to unbearable levels for some of my constituents. Yet, there is nothing that triggers action by the Department for Transport to deal with a road. One might go to see the Minister and they might say, ''Well, there isn't any money''. However, as noise levels rise to unacceptable levels we start needing a strategy.

Other issues include train horns, which since the introduction of new rolling stock have made the lives of many of our constituents a misery. They are much noisier than previous horns, so there is a problem. I have been fighting on behalf of my constituents with the Rail Safety and Standards Board for a long time to ensure that they are used only when necessary and not above a certain decibel level. What else can be done?

Those sorts of things could be done nationally as opposed to individual MPs trying to pick off the train operating companies as they go through their constituencies. There are a couple of Virgin Trains a day in my constituency, part of the constituency gets First Great Western Link trains—it has been less responsive—and South West Trains is doing a little more. Possibly, there could be a national guideline   about broadband horns, which are far more directional. At a stroke, the problem that has arisen during the past two or three years could be dealt with.

We need the strategy. There is a lot more that Government could put in. Our proposal is a probe, and I hope it will encourage them to move forward from the work that they have done researching the problem towards making an announcement about how they intend to mitigate against it.

We cannot underestimate the problem. As this island gets more crowded, as we build homes closer to one another and as people have to live next door to industrial plants as a result of the shortage of building land, such things become imperative. We need to get a grip now, before the situation gets worse.