HC Deb 17 March 2004 vol 419 cc270-1W
Mr. Sheerman

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the change in costs to local authorities of the Household Waste Recycling Act 2003. [159012]

Mr. Morley

Local authorities are making significant changes in their waste management practices to meet their current Statutory Performance Standards for recycling and composting and in anticipation of legally binding requirements under the Landfill Directive to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste landfilled. It is too early to tell whether the requirements of the Household Waste Recycling Act will impose costs in excess of those being incurred to meet the aforementioned targets.

Mr. Sheerman

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has had with local government on local authority performance on waste recycling. [159006]

Mr. Morley

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State has not held any specific discussions with local government on local authority waste recycling performance recently.

I will follow up my predecessor's correspondence with local authorities whose progress towards meeting their recycling and composting targets was judged to be of most concern. once data on local authority recycling performance for 2003–04 are available, in summer 2004, and those failing to meet those targets have been identified.

There is regular discussion on local authority waste management issues, including performance, between Defra and the Local Government Association (LGA) officials.

Mr. Sheerman

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of local authority performance on(a) waste recycling and (b) waste disposal. [159010]

Mr. Morley

In December 2003 the Audit Commission published information on local authorities waste and recycling performance as part of its Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI)data for2002–03 These data supplement local authorities own projections of their 2003–04 performance and provide an indication of local authorities movement towards their statutory performance standards. It suggests that England is within reach of its 2003–04 national target of 17 per cent.

Local authorities actual performance for 2003–04 will be known when the BVPI figures are published in December 2004.

The Waste Implementation Programme, as part of its approach to targeted support, is identifying those authorities facing barriers to improved performance and how these might be overcome.