§ Sir Mark Lennox-BoydTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will instruct his officials to hold discussions with the Sanitary Medical Disposal Services Association in respect of the definition of hazardous health care wastes; [3549]
(2) if he will instruct his officials to have discussions with officials at the Department of Transport to ensure that the definition of infectious waste applied to the transport of infectious waste is identical to the definition of infectious waste applying to the disposal of infectious waste; [3550]
(3) if he will ensure that the waste management paper No. 23 to be implemented in 1996 will specify that hazardous health care waste should be interpreted to include only notifiable disease waste. [3548]
§ Mr. ClappisonI know that the Sanitary Medical Disposal Services Association is concerned lest developments in the regulation fo health care wastes might damage its members' business. The association can at any time initiate new discussions with my Department. The association may also wish to comment on the Health and Safety Commission's draft revised version of the Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road and Rail (Classification, Packaging and Labelling) Regulations 1994. Consultation among Departments would depend to some extent on the nature of the association's concerns. But since I wish to minimise inconvenience to business and to ensure proper arrangements for environmental protection and health and safety, my Department will in any case consult further with the Department of Transport. If alterations in the UK statute were the right course, that would be done in the normal way: waste management papers cannot alter statute or the rules of statutory interpretation.