To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 7 December 2006, Official Report, column 579W, on the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, which tier of local authority is empowered under section 3 of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 to issue a fixed penalty notice or prosecute for the offence of selling cars on verges. (112878)

Section 9 of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 defines a ‘local authority’ as:

(a) a district council in England;

(b) a county council in England for an area for which there is no district council;

(c) a London borough council;

(d) the common council of the City of London;

(e) the council of the Isles of Scilly;

(f) a county or county borough council in Wales;

An ‘authorised officer’, in relation to a local authority, means an employee of the authority who is authorised in writing by the authority for the purposes of giving notices under section 6 of the Act.