To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps are being taken to ensure that local authorities will receive sufficient information from the Ministry of Defence to ensure that land forming part of the defence estate is noted in their registers of potentially contaminated land.

I have been asked to reply.There is a close liaison between the Ministry of Defence and the Department of the Environment concerning the implications for the defence estate of the public registers of land which may be contaminated to be compiled under section 143 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. In addition, the MOD is working with the DOE to prepare a profile of potentially contaminative uses of defence land which is designed to assist local authorities to compile register entries. The MOD will respond positively at the appropriate time to local authority requests for information, subject to the constraints of national security.