§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if the timetable for finalising his Department's proposed waste classification system will be coincident with that for implementation of the landfill tax; and if he will make a statement. [19138]
§ Mr. ClappisonThe landfill tax will be introduced on 1 October this year, as my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, confirmed in his Budget speech last autumn. Those wastes subject to the lower rate of tax have been the subject of extensive consultation by HM Customs and Excise and will be set out in a Treasury order. A draft of the proposed contents of the order will be circulated in April. The third stage of the consultation on the national waste classification scheme will be published next month by my Department in conjunction with the Welsh Office, the Scottish Office and the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. This will involve the introduction of the scheme on a non-statutory basis from April, so that its use can be fully assessed.