§ Mr. PickthallTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will reconsider proposed regulations to make exempt from waste management licensing suppliers of automotive paints storing waste flammable solvents who hold a petroleum licence.
§ Mr. Yeo[holding answer 6 July 1993]: My Department issued consultation papers on waste management licensing in August 1992. These included draft regulations prescribing certain exemptions from the need to have a waste management licence. We did not then propose an exemption for waste solvents. Waste flammable solvents are categorised as "special waste" under the Control of Pollution (Special Waste) Regulations 1980, and are likely in due course to be categorised as "hazardous" under the EC Directive on Hazardous Waste (91/689/EEC). That directive constrains our freedom to exempt the management of such waste from the need to have a licence. This may only be done where the waste is destined for recovery. We have received representations from the vehicle paint spraying industry about the possibility of exempting the storage of small quantities of waste solvent destined for recovery. We will be considering their case very carefully in the context of finalising the waste management licensing regulations.