Vol. 473 No. 4
42 Kathleen Lynch asked the Minister for the Environment the progress, if any, which has been made towards reducing the response time for requests under the environment regulations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1574/97]
Under the updated Access to Information on the Environment Regulations, 1996, the time for responses to requests for environmental information has been reduced from two months to one month, as a general rule, with a provision for extension by a further month in cases of particular difficulty. I will be keeping these regulations under review in the context of the new freedom of information legislation to ensure consistency between the provisions on access to environmental information and the general arrangements for freedom of information.
