Environmental Offences (Use of Fixed Penalty Receipts) Regulations 2006

My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for bringing the regulations before us tonight for our approval. Obviously we support the theory behind them. I have a couple of questions for the Minister. I understand that parish councils with quality status are entitled to keep their fixed-penalty functions. Will she tell me how many parish councils currently fall within that category? Is it 50 per cent of them, or 25 per cent of them? The statutory instrument does not tell us how many it is, and that would be useful to know. Secondly, paragraph (4)(5) on page 2 states that the Secretary of State is required to publish,"““at such intervals, as she shall determine, a list of parish councils approved by her as Quality parish councils””." How often do the Government intend that to be? Will it be updated annually, or will it be updated every two years or every five years? That would also be of interest to us. Having read the regulations carefully, I also understand that high-performing councils can use their receipts for purposes other than those for which they are defined provided that they fall within the particular range. We do not have a problem with that. But have the Government considered that some councils may not get enough income from their receipts to make what they are trying to do work? I understand that, in some cases, the fixed penalties available from systems already in being to deal, for example, with dog fouling—which I know we will consider later—very often are not taken to task. So, where a council is not doing a duty that it should be doing, is it possible for members of the public to draw that parish council’s attention to what it is not doing? If so, how will that be rectified? But, in general terms, we certainly welcome the provision.