§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the statement made by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury on 3 February 2003,Official Report column 5WS, on the landfill tax credit scheme, who appointed, and when, the independent panel of assessors to review the operation of the transitional 766W funding process in England; who these assessors are; what their remit is; what action was taken to ensure that the appointment of the assessors complied with the Nolan Principles; at what rate and by whom the assessors are remunerated; and whether the assessors include (a) representatives of the waste management industry and (b) persons who are employed by bodies which make decisions relating to spending on (i) Object C and (ii) CC projects under the landfill tax credit scheme. [103503]
§ Mr. MeacherOn 11 March I wrote to the three people listed as follows and asked them to serve as members of the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme Sustainable Waste Management Legacy Fund Independent Assessment Panel. They have agreed to do so; the three members are
Dr. Jane Beasley from the Chartered Institute of Waste Management.Dr. Tariq Ali from the Imperial College Environment Office.Professor Chris Coggins an independent waste academic.The panel has been set up to approve eligible applications to the Legacy Fund to ensure that the process is transparent and cannot be criticised on propriety grounds or allegations of bias. Members of the panel should, therefore, have no direct link with any organisation that may benefit from the fund. In any instance where, contrary to intention this turns out not to be the case, the panel member concerned will declare an interest and not take part in any discussion/decision relating to the project in question.
Panel members will be paid their out of pocket expenses and receive an honorarium of £350.
Decisions on projects requiring continuing funding under the Legacy Scheme need to be taken very quickly. It was not possible therefore, to run an open competition for panel members. Their appointment has, however, conformed to Nolan Principles to the extent that they are independent of Government, are accepted leaders in their field and represent different elements in society.
The possibility of having a representative of the waste management industry on the panel was considered, but was thought to be inappropriate given the role of the panel. Before appointing the panel members checks were made to ensure as far as possible that they were not connected to (i) Object C and (ii) CC projects that were likely to apply for Legacy Funding. However, as an additional protection the requirement to declare an interest and not take part in the decision was included in the operating procedures.