§ 4.23 p.m.
§ Lord Whittyrose to move, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 20th November be approved [32nd Report from the Joint Committee, Session 1999–2000].
The noble Lord said: My Lords, these regulations relate to changes that the Government propose to make to the packaging regulations. Revised recovery and recycling targets for the years 1999 and 2000 were announced in January 1999, but the Government have kept under review the targets for 2001 so that they can assess what they should be in the light of further work on the packaging data and the returns for 1999. That work has now been done. The proposed targets for 2001 are: 56 per cent recovery and 18 per cent material-specific recycling of packaging waste. The regulations are intended to enable the UK to meet the mandatory targets in the EU directive on packaging and packaging waste; that is, 50 per cent recovery, 25 per centrecycling and 15 per cent recycling for each type of packaging material. Those European targets must be met next year.
The other part of these changes in regulations relates to the scheme fee mechanism. The Government propose to change the mechanism according to which the registration fee paid each year by members of compliant schemes is determined. We propose that from January 2001 there should be an annual flat registration fee of £460 for each compliant scheme member regardless of the size of the scheme. That replaces the sliding scale mechanism according to which the higher the number of members in the scheme the lower the fee paid by the scheme members. We believe that that will be generally welcomed particularly by smaller businesses. I beg to move.
905 Moved, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 20th November be approved [32nd Report from the Joint Committee, Session 1999–2000].—(Lord Whitty.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.