Issues for the Environment Agency
25. Both Directives will place new duties on the
Environment Agency. In particular, the Agency will have responsibility
for "regulating storage sites and treatment facilities for
both ELV and WEEE; monitoring and enforcement of those sites to
ensure compliance; and monitoring and enforcement of non-permitted
sites".[41] The
Agency also says that "there are other duties which may fall
to the Agency
but as yet these are unclear. For example,
registering producers, importers and compliance schemes for producer
responsibility obligations and also for auditing achievement of
recovery and recycling obligations".[42]
In addition, we have previously commented that the Agency should
not "lose sight" of environmental crimes such as fly-tipping,[43]
so we trust that it will respond vigorously to the problem of
abandoned vehicles.
26. These additional responsibilities will place
strain on the Agency. The British Vehicle Salvage Federation says
that "we are also seriously concerned as to whether the Environment
Agency will have sufficient resources to operate the new permitting
requirements
and be able to police the system".[44]
However, although the Agency agreed that it faced a number of
challenges, it said that "it is important to keep this in
perspective".[45]
Moreover, the Minister for Environment pointed out that the Agency
had already received an increase in its budget to address its
increasing workload. But we note the call of the Better Regulation
Taskforce for the Environment Agency to be granted additional
resources by Government, or given powers to raise funds, specifically
to deal with the ELV and WEEE Directives.[46]
We urge the Government to ensure that the Environment Agency
is adequately resourced to deal both with the requirements of
implementation of the Directives and with their consequences,
and to identify in its response to this report exactly
how much additional resource has been or will be allocated to
the Agency for this purpose.
Printer cartridges
27. We received evidence from those involved in recycling
printer cartridges which argued that cartridges should be included
within the provisions of the WEEE Directive. It was pointed out
that over the lifecycle of a laser printer, for example, ten times
more waste by volume would result from the replacement of cartridges
than would from disposing of the printer itself. The claim was
made that to subject printer cartridges to the Directive would
be good for the environment, since it would encourage their remanufacture
and recycling.[47] Although
the Government expressed sympathy with the argument made, it argued
that "printer cartridges are consumables and they are just
not in the scope of the Directive, unless they happen to be in
the product when it is discarded".[48]
Although we understand the argument made by the Government,
we are concerned that excluding printer cartridges from the WEEE
Directive will not encourage their sustainable re-use. We invite
the Government to think again about the matter.
16 see, for example, Ev 58, para.12; Ev 25, para.26 Back
17
Q 275 Back
18
Ev 25, para.26 Back
19
Q320 Back
20
Better Regulation Taskforce (2003) Environmental Regulation:
Getting the message across, July 2003, p.12 Back
21
Q326 Back
22
Q260 Back
23
Q259 Back
24
See, for example, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
(Q15) Back
25
Ev 80, para.2 Back
26
Q139 Back
27
Q47 Back
28
Q263 Back
29
Q232 and Q233 Back
30
Q308 Back
31
Q13 Back
32
From 1 January 2004 the registered owner of a vehicle remains
responsible for taxing it until the liability is formally transferred
to a new keeper, or the vehicle is scrapped. Failure to re-license
a vehicle incurs an automatic penalty of £80; the DVLA will
check its records each month to identify those vehicles without
a valid tax disc (www.dvla.gov.uk) Back
33
Q314 Back
34
ODPM Committee, First Report, ODPM Annual Report and Accounts
2003, HC (2003-04) 102-I, para.16. Back
35
Q158 Back
36
Q143 Back
37
Q308 Back
38
Ev 24, para.10; Q69 [BRC] Back
39
Ev 24, paras.17 and 18 Back
40
Ev 24, para.20 Back
41
Ev 47, para.2.2 Back
42
Ev 47, para.2.3 Back
43
The Future of Waste Management, HC (2002-03) 385-I, para.37;
see also the evidence taken by the Environmental Audit Committee'
Sub-committee on Environmental Crime - see www.parliament.uk Back
44
Ev 9, para.8 Back
45
Q228; Q230 Back
46
Better Regulation Taskforce (2003) Environmental Regulation:
Getting the message across, July 2003, p.7, recommendation
7 Back
47
See E18 and E19 Back
48
Q343 Back