Examination of Witnesses (Questions 80-99)
DEPARTMENT OF
THE ENVIRONMENT
FOR NORTHERN
IRELAND
30 NOVEMBER 2005
Q80 Mr Bacon: An independent review
of what? An independent review of the decision to establish an
agency?
Mr Peover: Of governance, of how
the environment is governed in Northern Ireland and it covers
more than just the—
Q81 Mr Bacon: And when did this independent
review start? Has it started? Has the independent review to which
you have just referred started?
Mr Peover: It is due to start.
Q82 Mr Bacon: It has not started
yet?
Mr Peover: No, it is due to start
in January.
Q83 Mr Bacon: So I am right when
I say that it was in June 2004 that this recommendation came out;
you have made a decision that you need to start talking about
this, but you have not done it yet. January 2006.
Mr Peover: It is rather more than
that. The Minister committed the administration in Northern Ireland
in July of last year to a review. We have been in dialogue with
him and with the environmental NGOs about the terms of reference
for that review and about the possible membership of the review
team.
Q84 Mr Bacon: You have not yet established
who the members of this review panel are going to be. You have
been talking to all these NGOs for all this time but you still
do not know who the members of the review team are going to be.
Is that right?
Mr Peover: We hope the Minister
will announce the membership of the panel before Christmas.
Q85 Mr Bacon: A nice Christmas present
for you.
Mr Peover: Yes.
Q86 Mr Bacon: But number two: "Establish
a cross-departmental delivery group for the Waste Management Strategy
with membership at Permanent Secretary level", that is you,
is it not?
Mr Peover: Yes.
Q87 Mr Bacon: "and chaired by
a Minister". Has this cross-departmental delivery group for
the Waste Management Strategy been established?
Mr Peover: No.
Q88 Mr Bacon: No. That is a no to
that one. "Address the huge infrastructural deficit which
exists in NI in terms of waste treatment, recycling, recovery,
disposal and processing capacity". Well obviously you cannot
do that overnight, but what progress has been made on number three?
Mr Peover: That is being addressed
in the sense that we are working with the Strategic Investment
Board in looking at how we might fund the various infrastructures
which need to be created. We are also looking at the whole issue
of different forms of treatment. At the moment we have recycling
and landfill. We do not have some of the forms of treatment like
incineration and so on. So issues are raised in the review of
the Waste Management Strategy, which is out for consultation,
about how the whole package should best be constructed. We have
an infrastructure taskforce involved.
Q89 Mr Bacon: You have a taskforce?
Mr Peover: We do indeed.
Q90 Mr Bacon: Looking at this infrastructural
deficit?
Mr Peover: Yes, we do.
Q91 Mr Bacon: What do you call it,
an infrastructural deficit taskforce?
Mr Peover: More or less.
Q92 Mr Bacon: Excellent. Number four:
"Review a number of critical areas, including land-use planning,
waste management planning, procurement and partnerships".
Have you reviewed these critical areas?
Mr Peover: Yes, I suppose we have
looked at that.
Q93 Mr Bacon: Have you come to any
conclusions?
Mr Peover: On the waste management
planning one, for example, we have published for consultation
the revised Waste Management Strategy. On land-use planning, we
have a whole set of issues about the modernisation of the planning
process in Northern Ireland and we are running through a programme
about this.
Q94 Mr Bacon: Which is presumably
partly related to the restructuring of councils as well, is it?
Mr Peover: Yes, that will affect
it. There is a separate issue about who actually is the planning
authority. At the moment, my Department is the planning authority
for Northern Ireland, but the Secretary of State announced the
review of public administration and that will involve the shifting
of development control and area planning to local authorities.
Q95 Mr Bacon: What about procurement
and partnerships?
Mr Peover: Yes, how we will do
procurement is being reviewed as part of the process I described
to you earlier of working with the Strategic Investment Board
and the infrastructure taskforce. There is also a separate issue
with government procurement, back to the point Mr Williams raised
about leadership in terms of waste management. We work very closely
with the Central Procurement Directorate of the Department of
Finance and Personnel because procurement policy and strategy
is a central function in Northern Ireland.
Q96 Mr Bacon: Number five: "Waste
reduction, production and prevention must be addressed by all
sectors". I cannot see that there is much to comment on there;
plainly that is true. Number six: "The potential for developing
a Single Waste Management Plan for NI should be explored, and
may provide the scope for the establishment of a Single Waste
Management Authority". Does that mean that there will be
one set of garbage trucks with the same name down the side of
them which will do all the collections of all the garbage? Is
that basically where it would head?
Mr Peover: Well, yes. It is slightly
more complicated than that. Two possibilities are floated in the
review of the Waste Management Strategy. One is a single disposal
authority. The collection of waste is a function of local authorities,
it has always been a function of local authorities and disposal
has been a function of local authorities. We now have the review
of public administration; we now have an issue raised in the review
about whether there should be a single authority, either to manage
the whole process, collection and disposal, or simply disposal.
So issues are being addressed as part of that consultative process
now.
Q97 Mr Bacon: In figure 10 on page
35 it states that there are 43 areas where there is no progress,
under the heading "Degree of Progress". Could you say
what the current position is in relation to those 43 areas or
perhaps you may wish to write to the Committee? Is this now somewhat
out of date, have things changed?[1]
Mr Peover: Yes, it is. Things
have changed in 2005 and the Report was published in June 2004.
There are examples of action where we have moved forward on a
number of the issues that they raised, but there are 105 of them
and it might be more sensible to write to the Committee and give
you details of where we stand on those issues.
Q98 Mr Bacon: In the paragraph underneath,
it says that your Department ". . . in its `Reflections'
Report". This was a reflection on the Waste Management Advisory
Board review, was it?
Mr Peover: Yes, it was.
Q99 Mr Bacon: You do not have anybody
who comes up with the titles to distinguish the Reports from the
reviews from the reflections, do you?
Mr Peover: Steve was responsible
for the Reflections title.
Mr Aston: I plead guilty to that.
1 DOENI, Review of the Waste Management Strategy
for Northern Ireland: Reflections on the Waste management Advisory
Board: Strategy Review Report (2004). Back
| 
