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2 May 2006 : Column 1319W—continued

Recycling/Composting

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how she plans to prevent commercial waste from being transferred into domestic waste streams; and when she plans to set recycling targets for local authorities for commercial waste. [64603]

Mr. Bradshaw: The waste duty of care is set out in section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and associated regulations. It applies to anyone who is the holder of controlled waste—which includes commercial, industrial and household waste.

Persons concerned with controlled waste must ensure that the waste is managed properly, recovered or disposed of safely, does not cause harm to human health or pollution of the environment and is only transferred to someone who is authorised to receive it.
 
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Breach of the duty of care is an offence, with a penalty of up to £5,000 on summary conviction or an unlimited fine on conviction on indictment.

We will shortly announce statutory targets for recycling household waste for 2007–08. For beyond 2008, we are undertaking a review of the recycling and composting targets as part of the review of the Government's Waste Strategy for England.

Waste collection authorities have a duty under Section 45(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of commercial waste where requested to do so. We are consulting on whether local authorities should have a wider role with regards to commercial waste, including strategic planning for all waste and the provision of recycling services for business waste. In light of this we will be considering whether there is a need to place further requirements on local authorities, including setting local authority targets aimed at improving the management of commercial waste. The deadline for responses to the consultation is 9 May.

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the provision and use of municipal domestic garden waste shredding services count towards best value performance indicators for recycling or composting. [66245]

Mr. Bradshaw: The relevant best value performance indicators (BVPI) are 82 a & b. These measure, respectively, household waste sent by the authority for recycling, or composting or treatment by anaerobic digestion. Household garden waste that has not been home composted can count towards the indicators, provided it is collected from a source and processed or treated to a standard according to the appropriate guidance.

The guidance for both indicators can be accessed via the ODPM's website at:

http://www.odpm.gov.uk/pub/119/BestValuePerformancelndicators200506GuidanceDocumentAmended010405PDF6386Kb_id1136119.pdf (See P131–139).

Rural Payments Agency

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farms have received the correct payment in full from the Rural Payments Agency; and by what date all farmers will have received full payment. [56013]

Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she expects the payments due to (a) Mr. Andrew Ramply and (b) other farmers who received their statement of entitlement for the single farm payment on 1 March to be validated. [57077]

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what proportion of entitlement statements for the single farm payment being sent to farmers were unvalidated; and what steps she is taking to ensure that these farmers receive their payments before the end of March; [57896]

(2) what plans she has to assist those farmers who will not receive single farm payments before 31 March; [57985]
 
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(3) what estimate she has made of the number of farmers who will not have received their single farm payments by 31 March. [57986]

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farms have received the correct single farm payment in full from the Rural Payments Agency; and by which date she expects all farmers to have received full payment. [60483]

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she expects to complete the single farm payments for financial year 2005–06; and if she will make a statement. [62395]

Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department is taking to improve the level of efficiency in processing single farm payment payments and receipts; and if she will make a statement. [63055]

Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what percentage of eligible farmers in England had received their full entitlement to single farm payment as at 31 March 2006; [62110]

(2) how many eligible farmers in England are awaiting payment of outstanding single farm monies due to them. [62111]

Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the progress towards making outstanding payments under the single payment scheme since 16 March; and if she will make a statement. [63881]

Jim Knight: In total, 120,367 applications were received for the single payment scheme (SPS). By the end of Friday 21 April 51,003 claims (42.5 per cent.) had been paid.

The remaining claims will be paid as soon as legally possible following the positive action set out in my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State's written statement on 16 March 2006, Official Report, column 104WS, the response to the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice) on 27 March 2006, Official Report, column 543), and the written statement on 19 April 2006, Official Report, column 13WS.

Waste

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations her Department has received on the definition of waste. [64049]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has received a range of representations about the definition of waste and its interpretation. These representations are wide-ranging in nature and, as a consequence, it would not be possible to provide a comprehensive list without incurring disproportionate cost.

A significant number of the representations have been made in the context of the Waste Incineration Directive coming fully into force on 28 December 2005 and have concerned issues such as the burning as fuel of (i) waste oil and (ii) tallow in compliance with the EU Animal By-Products Regulation. Summaries of our responses to these representations are available on the Department's
 
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website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/lapc/aqnotes/pdf/aq04–06.pdf and http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/ppc/pdf/tallow-wid.pdf.

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farmers and landowners have obtained a waste management licence or pollution prevention and control permit for use on their holdings in advance of the implementation of new regulations on 15 May. [66080]

Mr. Bradshaw: None. The effect of regulation 13 of the Waste Management (England and Wales) Regulations 2006 is to provide a 12-month transitional period from 15 May 2006 in which any farmer or landowner wishing to do so may apply for a waste management licence for the recovery or disposal of agricultural waste.

Because of the engineering requirements and the costs involved, it is unlikely to be a viable option for most farmers and landowners to obtain a pollution and control permit to continue to operate an existing farm dump". However, the effect of regulation 9 of the 2006 regulations is to provide that, if the operator of a farm dump proposes to continue to use it for the disposal of agricultural waste on or after 15 May 2006, he or she must prepare and submit a conditioning plan to the Environment Agency by 15 June 2006.

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures she has put in place to assist rural constituencies in meeting waste management targets. [64602]

Mr. Bradshaw: Defra recognise the challenge that all local authorities in England face in meeting their statutory performance standards in recycling and composting and their obligations under the landfill allowance trading scheme. Accordingly, we are providing increased levels of support and funding to all types of authorities.

Rural areas benefit, in common with all other local authorities, from the wide range of support available through the Waste Implementation Programme and the Waste Resources Action Programme.

We recognise that different types of local authorities face different challenges in waste management. It is for this reason that Defra-funded pilot projects aim to cover as diverse a range of local authorities as possible, including those in rural areas. Examples include Defra's household incentives pilot scheme, aimed at encouraging recycling, and trials of kerbside collection of waste batteries, funded by the Waste and Resources Action Programme.

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