1 Shortcomings in the development
of Northern Ireland's Waste Management Strategy
1. Waste legislation in the UK is based on EU Directives,
which member states are required to transpose into domestic law
in accordance with prescribed standards and targets. Lengthy transposition
delays have the potential to give rise to infraction fines. Any
fine that might be levied by the EU for delays in Northern Ireland
would be borne by the UK government, and the fine would be passed
on to Northern Ireland, resulting in a shortfall in its budget.
Potential fines have been estimated at around £400,000 for
each day that the UK was non-compliant, so the potential impact
would be significant.[2]
2. The existence of a 45-piece backlog of NI environmental
legislation awaiting transposition at March 2002 is evidence of
very poor performance by the Department, and it acknowledged readily
that there was no excuse for this situation. In the event, no
fines were imposed and the backlog was cleared by March 2004.
The Department has now put in place substantial additional resources
to ensure that no further backlogs develop.[3]
3. It is Government policy that sustainable development
should underpin all other goals, policies and processes and, in
1999, it published a Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) for
the UK. Following devolution, each regional legislature was expected
to produce its own SDS, with local indicators of progress. In
2000, the NI Executive gave a commitment to do so. This has not
been done, and NI is now the only part of the UK without a local
SDS. This continued delay has occurred despite eradication of
the legislative backlog, the influx of extra staff and the ready
availability of Strategies for other parts of the UK that could
be used as examples to reduce substantially the amount of preparatory
work required.[4]
4. NI's Waste Management Strategy, published in 2000,
was produced to satisfy EU requirements. The Department acknowledges
that it is far from perfect. Its targets are too timorous and
performance measurement is undermined by poor data on the nature
and volume of waste being produced and disposed of. Quarterly
reports from the Waste Dataflow system provide assurance in relation
to municipal waste data from Councils. However, this represents
only a small proportion of NI's waste and data on other types,
most notably agricultural, which is by far NI's largest waste
stream, is inadequate.[5]
5. Councils are responsible for delivering certain
targets included in the Strategy, including the recovery of 40%
of household waste by 2010, 25% of which is to be by recycling
or composting. The Department considers it likely that the household
waste target will actually be achieved by the end of 2006. However,
there are significant gaps in Councils' waste management plans.
For example, despite the ongoing need for landfill facilities
to deal with waste that cannot be managed in any other way, only
one of the Council plans addressed in any way the issue of landfill
capacity shortages.[6]
2 C&AG's Report, Northern Ireland's Waste Management
Strategy (HC 88, Session 2005-06) para 1.4; Qq 26-31 Back
3
ibid, paras 1.3, 1.7; Qq 2, 26 Back
4
C&AG's Report, paras 2.1-2.3; Qq 66-69 Back
5
C&AG's Report, paras 2.10, 2.12-2.13, 2.17; Qq 23-24, 103 Back
6
C&AG's Report, paras 2.19-2.25, 3.10 and Figures 5, 6; Qq
12-24, 53 Back
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