§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to increase the total for private finance initiative credits for waste disposal plans. [156387]
§ Mr. MorleyMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State recognises the increasing contribution that the private finance initiative (PFI) is making in the area of waste management and disposal. £475 million of PFI credits are being made available for waste projects over the period from 2001–02 to 2005–06. To date, eight waste PFI projects have reached contract completion and there have been seven new approvals since April 2003. PFI is being considered as one funding route as part of the current Government Spending Review covering spending up to 2007–08. The outcome of the Spending Review will be announced in the summer.
§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at what level she intends to fix penalties for local Waste authorities which do not meet waste targets. [156389]
§ Mr. MorleyThe level of penalty for Waste Disposal Authorities which landfill more than their available allowances under the Landfill Allowances Trading Scheme will be made known when the outcome to the recent consultation is published on the Defra website www.Defra.gov.uk. This is likely to be in early April. Waste Disposal Authorities will be able to avoid the imposition of penalties by making full use of the flexibilities in the scheme.
§ Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps are being taken to reduce the amount of waste generated by(a)households and (b)businesses in London. [155273]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 23 February 2004]:The Government's national policies to reduce the amount of waste generated will have an impact on London.
The Government have committed over £40 million over the next three years (2003–06) to the Waste and Resources Action Programme's (WRAP) waste minimisation work. Its work tackles household waste minimisation through four schemes:
an expansion of home composting;promotion of re-usable nappies;a research and development programme, aimed at identifying and developing innovative approaches to waste minimisation;work with major retailers to reduce the amount of waste entering the waste stream from supermarkets.Two London local authorities will participate in the 22 home composting pilot schemes that WRAP is running in 2004–05.
In addition WRAP will take forward an education and awareness programme. This will operate at both a national and local level to raise the public's awareness about waste issues, including waste minimisation.
1536WThe Government have also provided significant extra funding through the London Recycling Fund, which in its first two years specifically funded a number of waste minimisation schemes.
The London Recycling Fund has recently reviewed its business plan and has announced that waste minimisation and reuse is one of its three main priority areas for funding.
The Mayor of London's municipal waste management strategy "Rethinking Rubbish in London" sets out a number of policies he proposes to take to reduce municipal waste growth in London.
For businesses the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (as amended) set targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste and provide incentives to reduce the amount of packaging handled.
The Government have entered into a voluntary agreement with the newspaper industry, which has seen recycled content of newspapers increase to well over the target of 60 per cent, last year. The Government are looking to enter into more agreements of this kind.
The Government fund Envirowise, a business support programme dedicated to making businesses more resource efficient, saving money by minimising waste. Last year alone, Envirowise helped UK businesses to achieve annual cost savings of over £175 million, with a reduction of 1.6 million tonnes of solid waste. It also funds the Sustainable Technologies Initiative that provides funding for research and development projects aimed at minimising waste at source.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to require the Environment Agency to maintain more precise data on(a)inert, (b)non-hazardous and (c)hazardous waste arisings. [156406]
§ Mr. MorleyNone. The Environment Agency already keeps data on the origin, quantity, type and destination of every load of special waste. There are no plans to make these more precise. The Department is examining data needs in the context of the Landfill Directive targets to divert biodegradable municipal waste from landfill but also more widely in relation to the EU Waste Statistics Regulation. The intention is to consult on a draft data strategy. A decision will be made in due course as to who would be responsible for collecting these data.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the meetings she has held with the Deputy Prime Minister since 1 June 2001 to determine how the United Kingdom will provide the new waste management capacity that the Environment Agency has indicated is necessary to achieve compliance with the Landfill Directive; and what achievements have resulted from these meetings. [156407]
§ Mr. MorleyMy right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, meets the Deputy Prime Minister frequently to discuss all manner of topics. ODPM and Defra are working together to revise Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) 10, which covers Planning and Waste Management. The current PPG 10, issued in September 1537W 1999, deals with the planning considerations to be taken into account in preparing waste local (i.e. land use) plans. In updating PPG 10 (to Planning Policy Statement 10) the government aims to provide more strategic support for local authority decision makers in providing for new waste capacity—whether in plans or planning decisions. The aim is to publish a draft PPS 10 for consultation at the earliest opportunity.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the National Interim Waste Acceptance Procedures will be published. [156408]
§ Mr. MorleyThe waste acceptance criteria that currently apply and will continue to do so until Council Decision 2003/33 is implemented in England and Wales, are referred to in Regulation 10 and Schedule 1 of the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002. Consultation on the amending regulations implementing the Council Decision has ended and the outcome of that consultation should be published on the Defra website www.Defra.gov.uk in March.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when her Department will publish the(a)interim Hazardous Waste Regulations and (b)draft Hazardous Waste Regulations. [156409]
§ Mr. MorleyA draft of new Hazardous Waste Regulations will be made available when Defra goes out to consultation on the Regulations later this year. Defra has no plans to issue interim Hazardous Waste Regulations.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she has taken to ensure that hazardous waste is not transported between England and other parts of the UK to evade regulatory requirements; and if she will make a statement. [156412]
§ Mr. MorleyWhile regulatory requirements for hazardous waste in different parts of the UK may not be completely identical, the European Hazardous Waste List and the requirements of the Hazardous Waste Directive will be completely transposed throughout the UK. Movements of hazardous waste in the UK are tracked from the point of production to the point of final disposal, so those transporting such waste from one part of the UK to another will be unable to evade regulatory requirements.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when her Department will lay before Parliament the amendments to the Landfill (Amendment) Regulations 2002. [156413]
§ Mr. MorleyFollowing the publication later this month of the consultation outcome on the Landfill (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2004, the aim is to lay those Regulations before Parliament in April. This will enable the deadline of 16 July 2004 for transposing Council Decision 2003/33 on waste acceptance criteria into national legislation to be met.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the waste streams to be banned from landfill from 16 July 2004. [156414]
1538W
§ Mr. MorleyThere are no waste streams that will be banned from landfill from 16 July 2004. Hazardous liquid wastes and wastes that are explosive, corrosive, oxidising or flammable have been banned from being disposed of to landfill since 16 July 2002 and whole tyres have been banned from landfill at new sites and hazardous landfills since 16 July 2003.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what high temperature incineration capacity exists in(a)France, (b)Germany and (c)the UK for treatment of hazardous waste; [156415]
(2) what the rate of utilisation of high temperature incineration capacity within the United Kingdom was in the latest year for which figures are available. [156436]
§ Mr. MorleyIn the UK there are two operational merchant high temperature incinerators and one mothballed. The two operational plants have a current combined capacity of approximately 110,000 tonnes per annum for hazardous, waste, and utilisation was broadly in line with capacity last year. There are also a number of in-house HTI plant, generally attached to other industrial facilities.
Waste industry sources advise that France has 16 hazardous waste incinerators which corresponds to 770,000 tonnes per annum.
In Germany there is incineration capacity for approximately 1 million tonnes of hazardous waste per annum in approximately 30 plant (18 of which are integrated with other industrial plant).
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether advice has been given to Government departments on how to dispose of(a)end of life fluorescent light bulbs and (b)other waste that will be classified as hazardous when the Hazardous Waste Regulations come into force. [156416]
§ Mr. MorleyIt is anticipated that commitments for sustainable waste stream management on the Government Estate will be published during Spring/Summer 2004 as part of the waste section of the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate (Framework).
Practical guidance (to include information about fluorescent tubes and hazardous waste) will be produced and placed on the Framework website.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate(a)her Department and (b)the Environment Agency has made of the total capacity using separate cells at non-hazardous landfill sites that will be able to accept stable non-reactive waste in each year from 2004 to 2010. [156417]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Environment Agency is examining its records in order to identify those non-hazardous landfill operators who have expressed an interest in constructing a separate cell in their non-hazardous landfill sites for stable non-reactive hazardous waste. When complete, this work will provide a snap-shot of the position that the Hazardous Waste Forum will factor into its work on treatment and disposal capacity 1539W post July 2004. Whether or not to provide this disposal option is a commercial decision of the waste management industry.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the extent to which the Environment Agency's Regulatory Guidance Note 6 will prohibit the development of a separate cell at a non-hazardous landfill site able to take stable non-reactive waste. [156418]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Environment Agency has a duty to protect the environment and the requirements in its Regulatory Guidance Notes are drawn up with this duty to the fore. The technical/regulatory guidance that the Agency has produced on the use of separate cells for stable non-reactive hazardous waste—RGNs 6 and 11—reflect the need to maintain physical separation of the stabilised waste from chemically aggressive leachate from biodegradable waste in the same site. Providing landfill operators act in a responsible manner, there is no reason why RGN 6 should prevent the proper development of separate cells for stable non-reactive hazardous waste at non-hazardous landfill sites.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what methods were used to treat hazardous liquid waste in 2003; and how much hazardous liquid waste was sent to each of these methods; [156419]
(2) how much hazardous liquid waste was sent for treatment by landfill in each year from 2000 to 2002. [156420]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Environment Agency is preparing the information requested and I will write to the hon. Member.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what penalties the European Commission could apply if the United Kingdom were to defer the ban on co-disposal of hazardous wastes with non-hazardous waste resulting from the Landfill Directive; and whether her Department has discussed such deferral with the European Commission. [156425]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002 implement the provision in the Landfill Directive that bans the co-disposal of different categories of waste, except in certain specified circumstances, from 16 July 2004. The ban is therefore already part of UK legislation approved by Parliament and as a result, there has been no reason to discuss deferral with the European Commission. The question of possible penalties also does not arise.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action(a)her Department and (b)the Environment Agency have taken to liaise with (i) the Home Office, (ii) police forces and (iii) local authorities to (A) assess levels of risk associated with the unlawful disposal of hazardous waste and (B) implement a strategy to minimise the risk to the environment and human health. [156427]
§ Mr. MorleyDefra worked closely with the Home Office on development of environmental measures in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003.
1540WThe Anti-social Behaviour Act extends a range of powers, currently only available to the Agency, to waste collection authorities to ensure they can tackle illegal dumping effectively.
The Act also gives the Secretary of State the power to issue statutory directions to reinforce an existing voluntary agreement between the Local Government Association and the Environment Agency to create a clearer division of responsibilities. Defra published a consultation on proposed statutory directions on 23 February 2004.
The Environment Agency have worked with Defra and the Local Government Association to develop "Flycapture", the National Fly-Tipping Database, that is due to go live from April 2004. This will assess the scale and cost of illegal dumping in England and Wales.
Defra also worked closely with the Agency, local authorities and other Government departments to issue a Fly-Tipping Strategy that aims to ensure that legislation to combat fly-tipping is as effective as possible.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether she asked the Minister for Ecology and Sustainable Development in the French Government at meetings of the EU Environment Council why France already requires pre-treatment of hazardous waste; and what response that Minister made. [156432]
§ Mr. MorleyMy right hon. Friend discusses all manner of topics with her Ministerial colleagues in the margins of Environment Council meetings. The approach of other Governments in the EU in respect of waste management issues reflect long term attitudes to the environmental problems that can arise if waste is not handled correctly. For its part, it is the aim of this Government to continue to move towards a more sustainable waste management system in the UK by placing greater emphasis on minimising waste and on reusing, recycling, recovering or treating the waste that is produced.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what volume of hazardous liquid waste was disposed directly to public sewers in 2003; and if she will make a statement on the implications for(a)human health and (b)the environment of such disposal. [156433]
§ Mr. MorleyData on the volume of liquid waste and waste water discharges to public sewers is not held centrally, but the Environment Agency publishes relevant information pertaining to its regulatory functions in its Pollution Inventory. This information consists of the annual loads of a range of substances released to sewer and controlled waters and is available on the Environment Agency's "What's in your backyard" website (http://216.31.193.171/asp/1_introduction.asp)
The entry of hazardous substances into sewers in England and Wales is subject to authorisation by sewerage undertakers under the Water Industry Act 1991, by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and by the Environment Agency or local authority under the Pollution Prevention Control Act 2000. In determining its authorisations the 1541W Environment Agency ensures that discharges which may impact on environment do not pose a significant risk to human health or the environment.
§ Sue DoughtyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what meetings she has had with representatives of the(a)Confederation of British Industry and (b)Chemical Industries Association on developing a strategy to inform waste producers of their obligations under the Landfill Directive. [156435]
§ Mr. MorleyMy right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, and other Defra Ministers meet both organisations as and when necessary and may discuss a range of issues. A strategy to inform waste producers of their obligations under the Landfill Directive is an integral part of the Hazardous Waste Forum's Action Plan, published in December 2003. Both the Confederation of British Industry and the Chemical Industries Association are members of the Forum and were actively involved in drawing up the strategy. Also, both organisations have an important role to play in the delivery of that strategy.
§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what checks are made on low-level radioactive waste sites; how often they are checked; and by whom checks are done. [157261]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Environment Agency (EA), under the provisions of the Radioactive Substances Act 1993, regulates low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLW) disposal sites in England and Wales. This is achieved through authorisations which impose various conditions on the site operator. The authorisations require the operator to routinely report to the EA disposals against the authorised limits. In addition to reviewing these reports, the EA periodically inspects all authorised LLW disposal sites, to ensure that the conditions of the authorisation remain appropriate, and are being complied with.
The primary UK national LLW disposal site, operated by BNFL at Drigg in West Cumbria, is regulated by both the EA and by the Nuclear Safety Directorate of the Health and Safety Executive, under the provisions of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965.
The EA monitors radioactivity in surface waters (leachates, boreholes and nearby rivers and streams) around waste disposal (landfill) sites where disposals of low-level radioactive waste are authorised. This is undertaken on an annual or bi-annual basis.
BNFL undertake quarterly monitoring programmes of boreholes at the Clifton Marsh landfill site. In addition the company carries out quarterly dose rate surveys in relation to the Ulnes Walton landfill site and monitoring of the River Lostock close to the outfall point. The results of these monitoring programmes can be found on the BNFL website at www.bnfl.com.
The EA undertakes a thorough radioactivity monitoring regime in the vicinity of the Drigg site. This includes monitoring of surface waters and sediments bi-annually and monitoring of sands, sediments and seaweeds on the West Cumbrian coast four times per year. The Food Standards Agency also carries out monitoring of foods in West Cumbria to check that food produced around Sellafield and Drigg is safe. The monitoring includes seafoods caught from the Irish Sea off the West Cumbrian coast.
1542WFrom 2002, the results of all the environmental monitoring carried out by the Environment Agency and by the Food Standards Agency are reported jointly and annually in the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment report series, copies of which are placed in the Library.