To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what proposals he has for strengthening the Hedgerow Regulations; [83043](2) what measures he proposes for increasing the percentage of hedgerows protected in the North West Region. [83042]

Recommendations to the Government for strengthening the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, put forward by the group which reviewed them, were published in July 1998. The group recommended that research should be commissioned into the impact of their proposals, before final decisions were taken. We are studying the results of that research.