§ David TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what definition of recycling her Department uses to measure the statutory recycling rate for local authorities. [69113]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 11 July 2002]: The definition of recycling used by the Department for measuring local authority recycling rates is that contained in the Best Value Performance Indicator 82a, under which local authorities are requested to report the percentage of household waste which has been 'sent for recycling'. `Recycled' is defined as "reprocessed in a production process for the original purpose, or for other purposes, but excluding energy recovery".
In this context, household waste includes:
36Wwaste collection rounds (including separate rounds for collection for recyclables);street cleansing and litter collection;
(b) fish diseasesThere was an outbreak of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) in Scotland between May 1998 and May 1999. ISA is a serious fish disease which, in the event of an outbreak, is required to be controlled in accordance with measures specified in the Diseases of Fish (Control) Regulations 1994 (SI 1994 No. 1447) as amended.(c) plant diseases and pestsStatutory action has been taken is shown in the following table. This includes figures for Northern Ireland and Scotland provided by the devolved Administrations.
- bulky waste collections;
- hazardous household waste collections;
- household clinical waste collections:
- garden waste collections;
- drop-off/bring systems;
- any other household waste collected by the authority.
§ David TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what advice her Department provides to assist local authorities to calculate their level of recycling; [69114]
(2) how her Department defines community recycled programmes of household waste, as set out in Best Value Performance Indicator 82a. [69115]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding reply 11 July 2002]: Guidance on the calculation of household waste, including items that should be excluded from the calculation, is set out in the guidance on "Best Value Performance Indicators", first published in December 2000. This guidance underpins the DETR's "Guidance on Municipal Waste Management Strategies", which was published in March 2001.
The Department has not defined the 'community recycling programmes' that may be included in this calculation. If there is any uncertainty about whether a particular approach should score in an authority's calculation, we would expect the relevant authority to raise this with their external auditor in the first instance.