To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the outturn or estimated outturn total of rate support grant paid to local authorities, within each standard economic region, in total, in each year from 1979–80 to 1987–89.

The information is as follows:European Economic Community,

Figures for United Kingdom production of methyl chloroform and carbon tetrachloride are commercially confidential; figures for United Kingdom consumption are not available. European Community figures for production and consumption are not available. Following are available figures of estimated world and USA use since 1980; production figures are not available;

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the contribution of methyl chloroform and carbon tetrachloride to the depletion of stratospheric ozone.

Methyl chloroform has a low ozone-depleting potential as it tends to decompose before reaching the stratosphere. Carbon tetrachloride has a relatively high ozone-depleting potential, but most of what is produced is not emitted as it is used primarily as an intermediate in the production of CFC11 and CFC12. There is, therefore, considerable uncertainty about how much of these gases reach the stratosphere but current estimates suggest that each could contribute about 7 per cent. to the potential depletion of the ozone layer from man-made sources.