Mr. William O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will take action on the report published in 1993 on "Landfill Pricing: Correcting Possible Market Distortions"; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what plans he has to introduce a tax on waste to landfill; and if he will make a statement;
§ Mr. AtkinsThe Government are examining the idea of introducing a landfill levy. To inform our decisions, we published reports in 1993 on "Landfill Pricing: Correcting Possible Market Distortions" and "Externalities from Landfill and Incineration". We invited comments on both reports. The deadline for comments on the second report was 7 January 1994. We are now considering the reports and comments received on them and will announce our decisions in due course.