HC Deb 13 February 2004 vol 418 cc150-1W
Mr. Edwards

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether she has met representatives from the printer cartridge remanufacturing industry to discuss the scope of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. [153198]

Mr. Morley

I have not met any representatives from the printer cartridge remanufacturing industry to discuss the scope of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive.

Mr. Edwards

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which Ministers in her Department have met(a) Lexmark and (b) Hewlett Packard to discuss the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive; and what the dates were of such meetings. [153199]

Mr. Morley

In October 2002, my right hon. Friend, the then Minister of State for Environment (Mr. Meacher), met with industry representatives to discuss the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. A representative of Hewlett Packard was present at the meeting.

Mr. Edwards

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for what reasons the Government's transposition of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive(a) included only whole products and (b) did not include consumables. [153200]

Mr. Morley

The Government have not yet transposed the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive but is working to do so by the August 2004 deadline.

The WEEE Directive applies to electrical and electronic equipment that falls into one of 10 indicative categories set out in an annex to the directive.

The directive applies only to whole products because it makes producers financially responsible for the environmentally sound end of life management of their products. A very large number of producers are affected by this legislation as it is, and adding consumables to the scope of the directive would have significantly increased the number of producers obligated by the legislation, making the directive significantly harder, if not impossible to enforce, as well as more costly.

Norman Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment she has made of the implications for hazardous waste regulations arising from the bring-back requirements of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. [152616]

Mr. Morley

The potential implications of the bring-back requirements of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive on the control of hazardous waste are being assessed in the on-going review of the special waste regulations. These issues will be explained in the forthcoming consultation on replacement hazardous waste regulations.