To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a further statement on his policies to encourage local government to reduce the volume of waste deposited in landfill sites.

Our policies for encouraging waste minimalisation and recycling will help to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. In particular, the introduction of recycling credits under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 will provide a market-based financial incentive to recycle domestic waste rather than send it for landfill.

I thank the Minister for his answer. Is he aware that if "This Common Inheritance", the huge tome published by a supposedly green Government, is to be little more than a waste of trees, he should be doing more to encourage capital expenditure on incineration and recycling plants which would materially reduce the amount of waste? If all waste were recycled, only 20 per cent. would go into landfill. If that were to happen, it would help the residents of areas like Johnstown in my Constituency, who are threatened with a huge site next to their homes. It would also affect the Pen-y-Bont works proposal which threatens the Dee, a water course serving the Wirral and the rest of Clwyd. Residents would be far better off and would be better served by recycling plants than by the threat of dumping.

We are making available £40 million of supplementary credits over the next three years for exactly the sort of projects that the hon. Gentleman wants.

Is my hon. Friend aware that the number of potential landfill sites has been increased by quarries identified as a result of interim development orders designated between 1943 and 1948, even before sites of special scientific interest and other environmental designations existed? Will my hon. Friend bring forward the consultation paper on IDOs and ensure, as a result of the consultation, that environmental impact assessments are carried out on every IDO before development?

My hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning will have heard my hon. Friend's comments. I am sure that he will want to guarantee that the consultation process takes place efficiently and effectively and that the views of my hon. Friend are considered.

When does the Secretary of State intend to publish a full timetable for the implementation of part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990? Does he agree that, although many local authorities and voluntary bodies are co-operating and tackling problems extremely well, we need a national strategy for waste and that the Government are not providing that leadership?

We do have a national strategy for waste. It is set out in the Environmental Protection Act. But of course the final decision on the most appropriate facility for any area must lie with the waste disposal authority. I am sure that the hon. Lady would be the first to carp if we in Whitehall sought to take decisions that she thought would be far more appropriately taken by local authorities.

Does the Minister accept that it is absolute nonsense for waste, including industrial waste, to be transported 200 or 300 miles to be dumped in old quarries, as is proposed in north Wales? It is unacceptable to local communities to have other people's waste dumped on them. It is also unacceptable environmentally and because of the transport costs of carrying waste enormous distances. Surely a better answer can be found.

The higher standards and the higher costs that landfill sites will be required to meet under the Environmental Protection Act will also increase the competitiveness of other methods of waste disposal such as recycling. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will welcome that and I commend to him the paper on recycling credits published yesterday which makes that clear.