§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the likely cost implications of Directive 200/53/EC and Regulation 2037/2700 on(a) county councils, (b) London boroughs and (c) district councils. [28546]
§ Mr. MeacherThe End of Life Vehicles Directive 2000/53/EC has far reaching consequences for a number of different economic operators. However, it is not intended that local authorities will have any direct responsibility for implementing this directive.
The directive requires producers to be responsible for all or a significant part of the costs of take back and treatment of end of life vehicles from 2007. These arrangements should help to ease the situation for local authorities in dealing with abandoned vehicles. It has not yet been decided how take back and treatment of end of life vehicles between 2002 and 2007 will be funded.
A Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) on the proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) on substances that deplete the ozone layer was undertaken in December 1998. The RIA did not estimate compliance costs for the extraction of ozone-depleting substances from the insulating foam in domestic refrigeration equipment as the draft proposal did not make it mandatory. It was not until June 2001 that the European Commission gave EU member states its final interpretation of EC Regulation 2037/2700 that it did require the recovery of controlled substances in the insulating foam of domestic fridges and freezers.
The Department recently announced a payment of £6 million to English local authorities to cover their costs of handling fridges and freezers until March 2002. We are urgently assessing the impacts of the regulation, including the costs, and will determine what further action is required beyond that.