To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what funding has been provided to waste reduction schemes under the Landfill Communities Fund and its predecessor in each year since 1997. (231664)

I have been asked to reply.

Figures supplied by the fund's regulator, Entrust, show that funding provided for sustainable waste management projects under the landfill communities fund (formerly the landfill tax credit scheme) is as follows:

The sum of the years differs marginally from the total shown owing to rounding.

Prior to Budget 2003, there were additional objects which covered sustainable waste management projects, which this question concerns. The fund was reformed in Budget 2003 following discussion with stakeholders. As well as extending the scope of the scheme from 1 October 2003 to include habitat creation projects on land that need not have public access, in order to support biodiversity, the objects relating to sustainable waste management were removed from 1 April 2003 and a proportion of the funding for the scheme was redirected to public spending on a new sustainable waste delivery programme.