Household Waste (Hansard, 17 February 2003)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is responsible for the policy framework within which local authorities manage household waste, including recycling and composting. The department has a number of functions associated with that policy framework. These include:

setting statutory performance standards for recycling and composting which individual local authorities must deliver by 2003–04 and 2005–06;

sponsoring the Waste and Resources Action Programme—a company established by government to help to promote sustainable waste management through tackling market barriers to recycling and removing barriers to waste minimisation, reuse and recycling;

administering funds that are designed to assist local authorities in delivering sustainable waste management solutions over and above the general revenue support grant that is provided in the Local Government Finance Settlement. These funds include a waste minimisation and recycling challenge fund (£140 million for 2002–03 and 2003–04) and £355 million of local private finance initiative (PFI) resources.