HC Deb 18 April 2002 vol 383 cc689-91
8. Mr. David Rendel (Newbury)

What steps her Department is taking to assist local authorities with the recycling of refrigerators. [46517]

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Margaret Beckett)

We have announced a payment of £6 million to local authorities to cover their costs from January 2002 to March 2002. An announcement will be made very shortly regarding funding to cover local authority costs in the current financial year.

Mr. Rendel

Is the Secretary of State aware that on 31 January the Minister for the Environment answered a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Malcolm Bruce), in which he said that since late 1999 his Department had made frequent requests to the European Commission for formal clarification that insulating foam was covered by the regulation. He said: We did not get a formal reply until June 2001. We were badly let down by the Commission".—[Official Report, 31 January 2002; Vol. 379, c. 414.] In the light of the comments that he made on Monday to the Select Committee on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in which he apparently more or less retracted that statement, will the right hon. Lady ask him to apologise for his earlier answer not only to the House, but to my hon. Friend the Member for Gordon, to the European Commissioner and to all the local authorities who are now left with a bill of up to £40 million—not just £6 million—as a result of the mistakes made by her Department?

Margaret Beckett

Absolute rubbish. I advise the hon. Gentleman to read the memorandum that my right hon. Friend and our officials prepared for the Select Committee. If he does so, he will find that all his questions are fully answered. My right hon. Friend tempered the high-flown language that he had used, but it is perfectly clear, as the memorandum to the Select Committee made plain, that there is a great deal of continual dialogue between the United Kingdom and the Commission and others, and that, not least at the request of the business community and local authorities, clarification continues to be sought. I do not believe for a second that my right hon. Friend owes anyone an apology. He and the Department have been most assiduous in trying to get the right result.

Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York)

Is the Secretary of State familiar with the European WEEE directive—the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive? As amended, it will extend its provisions to cover not just fridges but microwave ovens, stereo equipment, hoovers and all domestic white consumer goods. Is the right hon. Lady aware that that is causing great concern in the farming community? Many such items are dumped on farmland, and local authorities then charge the farmers for their removal. What does the Department propose to do about this?

Margaret Beckett

We are looking closely at the directive's implications, how it can be handled, and how its purpose can be fulfilled in the United Kingdom. But I remind the hon. Lady—who, as a former Member of the European Parliament, will appreciate the distinction—that it is a directive, and that that provides some flexibility in regard to its implementation. The measure relating to fridges is a regulation, which gives no discretion: those are rules, which must be rigidly applied.

We are studying the new directive to see how we can best deal with people's concerns. I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising a further important point.

Mr. Jonathan Sayeed (Mid-Bedfordshire)

I was surprised by the Secretary of State's answer to the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr. Rendel). I have read the evidence that the Minister for the Environment gave to the Select Committee, and it is clear that until this week the Minister blamed the European Commission for the fridge fiasco. In evidence that he gave three days ago, he effectively retracted that accusation, instead blaming everyone but himself. I understand, however, that the industry and officials from more than one Department warned him of the consequences of signing the directive, and that he chose to ignore them.

My question is this: is that true? If it is not true, who is to blame? Does the Secretary of State accept ministerial responsibility for a monumental Government blunder that was not just predictable but predicted?

Margaret Beckett

I am not aware of the slightest shred of evidence for what the hon. Gentleman has said. To my knowledge, no one has ever suggested that my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment was advised not to agree to the directive on those grounds; nor is there any evidence for anything else that the hon. Gentleman has said.

The hon. Gentleman said that he had read my right hon. Friend's evidence, but it is clear to me that he has not understood it.