§ Jackie BallardTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when his Department will respond to the consultation on the disposal and recovery of farm plastics issued by his Department 12 months ago. [95879]
§ Mr. MullinThe consultation paper received a fairly limited response and subsequently we have been reassessing the proposals for a new industry initiative based on the Government's commitment to apply waste management controls to agricultural waste which is not excluded under Article 2 of the amended Framework Directive on waste. This means that most agricultural waste will be subject to the controls which apply to "controlled waste". The commitment was most recently confirmed in the waste strategy "A Way With Waste" which was published on 30 June. We will make a further statement in the light of this work.