asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have yet considered the proposal, made on 9th July 1987 during the debate on the report of the Select Committee on the European Communities on the EC Fourth Environmental Action Programme, that there should be a corresponding national rolling forward action programme for the environment.

The Department of the Environment has made a thorough investigation of the options for producing a national rolling programme for the environment similar to the EC Fourth Action Programme. The conclusion was that an exercise of this type would be proportionately too resource intensive; but that we should work on ways generally of improving the quality and presentation of the department's publications on the state of the environment.