Canals Mr. Lancaster To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the volume of canal traffic was in each year since 2000. Barry Gardiner The majority of canals in England and Wales are managed by British Waterways. The volume of traffic is recorded in terms of licences sold. These are set out as follows: ------------------------- | |Licences sold| ------------------------- |1999-2000|25,195 | ------------------------- |2000-01 |25,401 | ------------------------- |2001-02 |26,334 | ------------------------- |2002-03 |26,426 | ------------------------- |2003-04 |26,240 | ------------------------- |2004-05 |27,078 | ------------------------- |2005-06 |29,000 | ------------------------- Information on the canals owned or managed by non-public navigation authorities is not available.