HC Deb 15 February 1995 vol 254 cc995-7
18. Mr. Bennett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement about the Government's waste strategy programme.

Mr. Atkins

Last week we issued for public consultation a draft waste strategy for England and Wales. It aims to use the principles of sustainable development to provide a coherent framework for waste management policy and practice. Copies of the document are available in the Library.

Mr. Bennett

I thank the Minister for that reply. Could he clear up a question about green taxes? He will appreciate that many people are campaigning that Britain should follow that line. Does he accept that there is a dilemma with the green tax? Although it discourages environmentally unfriendly activity, Governments can be hooked on the income that it raises. Are the Government introducing the landfill levy primarily to increase funds for the Government, or to discourage the use of landfill sites for waste disposal?

Mr. Atkins

The levy will not increase funds directly to the Government. The whole idea of it as an economic instrument is to make people think through their waste strategy in companies or local corporations. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would also like to address his concerns to my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who ultimately is responsible for these matters.

Mr. Ian Bruce

My hon. Friend will know that the Government have been under great pressure to stop waste dumping and the burial of waste. Is he aware that in many cases, such as Dorset, the supposedly greener option of waste to energy has been wholly unacceptable, as it has to my constituents? Are we going in the wrong direction in trying to press those solutions when the green lobbies themselves are saying they are worse than waste dumping? Perhaps we should go back to the old technology.

Mr. Atkins

As it happens, yesterday I was at the Henry Doubleday Research Association, which does much work in composting and the recycling of organic waste. I was taken to Leicestershire to see a particular site that the county is operating. Many other waste authorities are also recycling and composting green waste. In the future that is likely to happen more often than not. If my hon. Friend has problems in Dorset that he feels that I can address, I shall be more than happy to help him and my other hon. Friends.

Mr. Beggs

Has the Minister considered giving any incentive to encourage waste burning to create energy as opposed to supporting landfill?

Mr. Atkins

My hon. Friend will be aware that some councils in Northern Ireland have done some really remarkable work on waste to energy. Down is the case in point, but I know from my former incarnation as a Northern Ireland Minister how much work was being done on alternative sources of energy. I suggest that the hon. Gentleman directs his question to the Minister responsible for such matters in the Province. I am trying to do my best over here on the basis of the good knowledge and experience that I gained in Northern Ireland.

Ms Ruddock

Further to that answer, what is the Minister's response to the report in The Observer last weekend that some municipal incinerators were emitting dioxins at a rate of more than 300 times the Government's safety limits and that Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution believes that they should be reduced by 90 per cent? What are his plans on the landfill levy in respect of local authorities? It appears to us that it would be a diversion of money from council tax payers straight to the Treasury.

Mr. Atkins

I never make the mistake of reading The Observer, so I cannot comment on that particular report; however, I understand that the serious issue underlying the hon. Lady's question is worth pursuing. I shall certainly ask HMIP exactly what the hon. Lady is referring to and ask for a report on it as soon as possible. Question Time is perhaps not the time to discuss the detail of the landfill levy, but I can assure the hon. Lady that we have many more policies relating to waste disposal than ever she does.

Mr. Gamier

I thank my hon. Friend for visiting the constituency factory to which he referred. Do not his interest in that factory and his visit to Leicestershire demonstrate the Government's attitude towards private and Government partnership in that sector?

Mr. Atkins

I am only sorry that the Whips did not allow my hon. Friend to be with me yesterday when I visited his constituency. He is right—the issue is all about partnership between the private sector and local authorities, as well as making companies recognise what can be done. Above all, the message that I would ask my hon. Friend to take back to his attractive part of Leicestershire is that domestic users of green waste from the garden can have it recycled and use it again for compost to benefit their gardens—it is a good system.