§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to decide on certificates of technical competence for the Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board; what representations he has received on the matter; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacleanThe proposal for certificates of technical competence for waste managers forms part of the new waste management licensing system under part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Powers exist in section 74 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for the Secretary of State to prescribe the qualifications and experience required of a person for the purposes of deciding whether the management of a waste site is to be in the hands of a technically competent person. As the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Baroness Blatch, announced in another place on 10 October 1990—Official Report, columns 289-90—the Department of the Environment commissioned the Waste Management industry Training and Advisory Board (WAMITAB) to prepare a system of waste management qualifications that might be so prescribed. WAMITAB delivered its report on these proposals in April this year.
The only representations made to my Department about the WAMITAB proposals since they were submitted have come from WAMITAB itself. The proposals are being examined and will be further discussed with WAMITAB. When Ministers have reached a view on the suitability of WAMITAB's proposals, this will he announced and will form part of a wider public consultation on waste management licensing later this summer. Final decisions on certificates of technical competence will then be made, in the light of that public consultation, so that regulations giving effect to the decisions may be laid before Parliament. Subject to the emerging timetable for the proposed environment agency, it is intended to bring these regulations into force in April 1993.