Waste Management Licensing (Hansard, 24 March 1994)

§ Mr. Atkins

Following consultation, and with the approval of the Treasury, my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for the Environment, for Wales and for Scotland have made a charging scheme for waste management licensing under section 41 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The scheme comes into force on 1 May 1994 and prescribes the fees which are to be paid to waste regulation authorities for applications for waste management licences; the fees for applications for the modification, transfer or surrender of licences; and charges for the subsistence of licences. It also prescribes the amounts which waste regulation authorities are to pay out of those fees and charges to the National Rivers Authority in England and Wales, or to river purification authorities in Scotland, for consultation in relation to licences.

The fees and charges are set in bands of quantities and types of waste. Following consultation we have made a number of changes to the originally proposed scheme which will be of benefit to small businesses and the recycling industry. These changes include the introduction of additional lower bands set at 5,000 tonnes per annum for the treatment or keeping of waste and for the disposal of inert waste. The 1994–95 subsistence charges for these lower bands have also been set at 70 per cent. of our assessment of full recovery of waste regulation authorities' costs. This is a transitional provision which will ensure that the introduction of fees and charges does not have an immediate and adversely disproportionate impact on small businesses, particularly small businesses engaged in the recycling of waste.

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In accordance with section 41(4) of the 1990 Act copies of the scheme are being laid before both Houses and placed in the libraries of both Houses. The scheme forms part of a document which also provides guidance on its operation.