To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the current advice given by his Department to local planning authorities on the control of new built development in the vicinity of existing arid former landfill tips.

The Government's advice to local planning authorities about planning control relating to landfill sites is set out in my Department's circular 17/89 "Landfill Sites: Development Control", issued in July 1989. This makes clear that authorities should exercise due caution 3n considering planning applications for development on or near such sites, and that in preparing and updating their development plans they should take full account of the implications of the presence of landfill sites for other types of development in the vicinity.