To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if the Government intend to continue the updating of statistics which the 1995 White Paper on Rural England and its 1996 update emphasised the importance of updating; and if he will make a statement. [16506]

We have no plans to publish an update of the commitments set out in the previous Administration's White Papers on Rural England, but statistics on issues affecting the countryside continue to be collected and updated. Much of this information is published.For example, we will be undertaking a major national survey of the habitats, plants, landscape features and land types of the British Countryside to mark the end of the Millennium. Countryside Survey 2000 will update and extend previous surveys undertaken at intervals over the last 20 years.