To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many sites if special scientific interest have been denotified in each year since 1981; what was the total hectarage involved in each year; and if he will make a statement.

The information is not available in the form requested. Since 1981. the total area of land de-notified in England, primarily as the result of boundary amendments to existing SSSIs is 12,699·8 hectares involving 440 SSSIs.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many sites of special scientific interest were visited under the site integrity monitoring programme for the latest 12-month period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.

In England, 1,597 SSSIs were visited in the period from 1 April to 31 December 1991. The aim is for all SSSIs to be covered by site integrity monitoring, with a visit to each site at least every three years.