Waste Management (Hansard, 22 October 2003)

§ Margaret Beckett

The charging arrangements are as follows:

(a) Implementation of the Water Framework Directive

The Environment Agency's costs of implementing the Water Framework Directive during the current financial year are funded by a combination of grant in aid and income from charges for consents for discharges to controlled waters and for water abstraction licences. Similar arrangements will apply during the implementation of the Directive.

(b) Revised Bathing Waters Directive

During the annual review of the Environment Agency's charges, an assessment will be made, both for the current and future financial years, as to whether extra charges for effluent discharges will be needed to fund development of the Revised Bathing Waters Directive.

These regulations are currently being revised. The revised draft regulations on the spreading of sewage sludge on agricultural land provide for the Environment Agency to recover its regulatory costs through charges and as part of these regulations a new charging scheme is being developed to take effect on implementation of the revised regulations which is expected in 2004.

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(d) Reduction of Agricultural and Mines and Quarries Waste

The regulations applying to the Waste Framework Directive's controls to agricultural and non-mineral mines and quarries waste are currently being drafted and will be issued for public consultation. The Environment Agency's Waste Management Licensing Charging Scheme will apply to the recovery or disposal of these types of waste under a licence as it currently applies to other types of waste. We do not propose to apply charges to the recovery or disposal of agricultural waste under a registered licensing exemption. Regulations will be in place by mid 2004.

(d) Exemption from Waste Management Licensing

Draft Regulations to implement the review of the exemptions in Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 provide for the Environment Agency to extend charging to six existing exemptions and one new exemption for the burning of dunnage at the dockside. The existing exemptions affected are:

land treatment
use of waste for land reclamation
use and storage of building waste composting
storage and spreading of sewage sludge
waste recovery at sewage treatment works.

It is intended that charges should be incorporated into the Agency's Waste Management Licensing Charging Scheme to take effect on the Regulations' implementation. The draft Regulations were issued for public consultation on 19 June with a view to being implemented early in 2004.