3 Reviewing progress and designing
improvements for the future
14. The Department appointed a Waste Management Advisory
Board in 2001, to advise on, and assist with, the implementation
of the Waste Management Strategy. The Board's June 2004 report
recorded no progress against 43 out of the Waste Management Strategy's
105 targets and actions. Given that the Strategy was produced
in 2000, this represents a poor rate of progress and raises concerns
that the Department may be unable to meet the key targets.[15]
15. The Board made a number of recommendations on
each aspect of the Strategy, but the Department's performance
against the key recommendations has been slow in the 18 months
since the report was published. Of particular concern is its failure
to establish the recommended cross-Departmental delivery group
at Permanent Secretary level, chaired by a Minister. Such a group
could have provided much-needed leadership and focus for delivering
the Strategy in general, and Greening Government in particular.
In addition, we were told that little further progress is likely
to be made in addressing NI's huge deficit in waste infrastructure
until the new Waste Management Strategy is produced in 2006, two
years after the Board recommended that the problem should be addressed.[16]
16. Having appointed the Board members for their
expertise, and having paid £55,000 on their expenses alone,
the Department then devoted staff time to producing a formal response
to the Board's report, challenging some of its findings. There
was no obvious need to devote scarce resources to preparing such
a document, given the Department's other priorities and its stated
acceptance of the majority of the Board's findings.[17]
17. Delivering on these issues, and others, will
be affected by the recently-finalised Review of Public Administration,
which will transfer responsibility for some functions from the
Department to Councils. In particular, it may impact on the consideration
of whether or not there should be a single waste management authority
for Northern Ireland. This further dimension to implementing long-delayed
improvements serves to emphasise just how slow the rate of waste
management progress has been in Northern Ireland, and underlines
the need for the Department to deliver improvements much more
quickly than in the past.[18]
18. It is clear that the Department fell behind on
implementation of its current Strategy, but it has learned lessons
from its past failings. The Department has now committed itself
to producing the Waste Management Strategy by March 2006 and the
Sustainable Development Strategy by Summer 2006, with firm targets
for improvement. Specific examples of targets against which its
future performance can be measured include: reducing illegal dumping
to less than 1% of total waste arisings in the next decade; and
only 55% of total waste going to landfill by 2010. Current proposals
to have more detailed arrangements for data holding, recording
and transmission are intended to facilitate measurement against
these targets. Success depends on finalising these arrangements
quickly and applying them to all waste streams.[19]
19. The Waste Management Strategy set a target for
reducing the quantities of biodegradable municipal waste being
landfilled to 75% of 1995 baseline levels by 2010. The Comptroller
and Auditor General will report to the Committee on the Department's
progress in meeting this important target.[20]
20. Northern Ireland requires an estimated capital
investment of £270 to £300 million to achieve the 2020
EU target for reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal waste
sent to landfill. Through the current consultation exercise for
its new Waste Management Strategy, the Department is exploring
funding sources for this investment. Possible ways of recovering
the cost include, for the first time, extending existing waste
producer charges to householders.[21]
21. The Public Accounts Committee of the Northern
Ireland Assembly commented unfavourably on the absence of an independent
environmental protection body and the Northern Ireland Affairs
Committee at Westminster and the Waste Management Advisory Board
have both recommended that one should be established. Although
this still has not been done, a formal review of overall environmental
governance, announced by the Minister in July 2005, is to begin
early in 2006. While the outcome cannot be predicted, it is now
recognised that there is a strong case for establishing an independent
body of the sort recommended previously.[22]
15 C&AG's Report, paras 4.1-4.3; Q 97; Ev 11-12 Back
16
C&AG's Report, para 4.3, Figure 10 and Appendix 3; Qq 86-97 Back
17
C&AG's Report, para 4.3; Qq 98-102 Back
18
C&AG's Report, paras 4.8-4.9 and Appendix 3; Qq 94, 96 Back
19
Qq 103, 108 Back
20
C&AG's Report, para 2.16, Figure 5; Q 112 Back
21
C&AG's Report, para 2.16 and Figure 5; Qq 40-47 Back
22
C&AG's Report, para 4.9; Qq 10-11, 70-85 Back
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