§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps are being undertaken to improve the availability and quality of data relating to waste published by his Department.
§ Mr. MacleanThe first stage of an informal in-house review of waste statistics involving policy divisions with responsibilities in this area and co-ordinated by the environmental protection statistics division was completed at the end of last year. As a result of this review a number of immediate steps have been taken to improve information availability: statisticians in the DOE have co-operated with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy in the development of new surveys of waste collection and disposal authorities to gather information on household and other municipal wastes; a programme to develop independent methods of assessing household waste arisings and its composition is also planned; and reviewing the content and form of the annual survey of special waste arisings.
A considerable amount of underpinning research work is also required to develop appropriate methodologies for collecting data on other waste streams and the results of the review are being used to develop those strands in the Department's research and development programme.
§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to prohibit the incineration of wastes containing heavy metals, organochlorines and other organic halogens within the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. MacleanThis would not be appropriate. Incineration is an important waste disposal option. However, it is essential to apply tight environmental234W regulation to incineration as to other waste disposal methods. Existing controls are being strengthened through implementation of part I of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This already covers new plant and will extend to existing plant later this year. Proposals have also been published for a new European Community directive on hazardous waste incineration.
§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to ban the trade in hazardous wastes to and from the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. MacleanNegotiations are in progress on a draft regulation on the supervision and control of shipments of waste within, into and out of the European Community. The regulation will enable the United Kingdom to ratify the Basel convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. The Government believe that all developed countries should become self-sufficient in final disposal of waste, but that imports of hazardous waste should continue from developing countries which are unable to deal safely with such waste. The Government consider that international movements of waste for recovery should continue subject to appropriate environmental controls, such as those included in the recent decision by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on the control of transfrontier movements of waste destined for recovery operations.