Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, under what statutory instruments the Government can regulate historic landfill sites if it is suspected that they could be contaminated with poisonous gases or chemicals.

Landfill sites are regulated by the Environment Agency under an environmental permit. Historic landfills are those that have never been or are no longer regulated under an environmental permit. The responsibility for investigating historic landfills and other land that may be contaminated rests with the local authority under the provisions of Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.