§ Baroness Coxasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are their proposals for cost-recovery charging for pollution regulatory authorities' costs.
§ Lord StrathclydeOn 30th January this year we announced that, subject to enactment of the Environmental Protection Bill, cost-recovery charges to meet the costs of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) and the National Rivers Authority in administering Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) would be introduced as from April 1991; and that the scheme would be based on an application fee payable when a process is submitted for IPC authorisation to cover the ongoing costs of compliance monitoring. The level of charges for a particular plant would be1434WA linked to the number of specified "components" which it comprised, thus relating the amount payable to the size and complexity of the plant concerned.
The Department of the Environment has now published a consultation paper on proposals for the detailed operation of this scheme, inviting comment from industry, environmental groups and others with an interest.
The paper also sets out proposals for charging schemes for local authority air pollution control of "Part B" processes, and for the regulation of premises under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960.
I have placed a copy of the paper in the Library.