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18 Oct 2007 : Column 1203W—continued
Landfill Tax
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the amount of landfill tax which will be raised from waste arising from recent serious cases of flooding. [158251]
Joan Ruddock: My Department has not specifically assessed the increase in landfill tax receipts following recent serious cases of flooding.
However, we would expect only a relatively small increase in municipal waste arisings as a result of recent flooding, which would be within the normal range of variations in annual waste arisings. This should not have a long-term or significant impact on waste management costs.
Landfill: Methane
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what requirements there are for (a) new and (b) existing landfill sites to collect methane emissions from the site and use them as an energy source. [158089]
Joan Ruddock: The EU Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) requires landfill gas to be collected from all new and existing landfill sites receiving biodegradable waste; landfill gas must be treated and used; and landfill gas which cannot be used to produce energy must be flared. The collection, treatment and use of landfill gas must be undertaken in a manner which minimises damage to or deterioration of the environment and risk to human health.
In this context, an existing landfill site is one which was operational on or after 16 July 2001.
Recycling: Business
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what incentives his Department provides for local authorities to engage with local businesses to promote recycling. [157936]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 15 October 2007]: The landfill tax escalator gives greater financial incentives to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. This was increased in the 2007 Budget so that the standard rate of tax will increase by £8 per year from 2008 until at least 2010-11. If private waste collectors that collect commercial waste fail to offer alternatives to landfill (such as recycling) they will find that the waste treatment services they offer will no longer be cost effective. This is an incentive for waste contractors to consider developing waste management partnerships with local authorities to provide services to local businesses.
In addition, the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste Programme (BREW) has been developed to give money raised through the landfill tax back to business through funding resource efficiency and waste projects that will benefit business. The BREW Centre for Local Authorities was set up to help local authorities undertake a leadership role in supporting the business community to become more profitable through business resource efficiency and waste reduction.
Recycling: Finance
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what additional funding is being provided to local authorities to meet central Government recycling targets. [158115]
Joan Ruddock: The main sources of funding for local authorities’ waste management services are revenue support grant (RSG) and national non-domestic rates (NNDR), distributed by central Government, and council tax. It is for local authorities to decide what proportion of this funding to invest in waste management services, including recycling. Other funding made available to authorities in England for waste management since 1997 is shown in the following table:
| Funding provided | ||||||
| million | ||||||
| Scheme | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
As part of Comprehensive Spending Review 2007, the Government have also announced a further step change in Private Finance Initiative spending on waste, more than doubling from £280 million in 2007-08 to £700 million by 2010-11, totalling £2 billion over the three years of the next spending period.
Waste Management: Welsh Assembly Government
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions his Department has had with the Welsh Assembly Government on the CBI's proposals for UK and Europe-wide standards on waste management. [157336]
Joan Ruddock: On 12 October 2006, the Government, in association with the devolved Administrations, published a consultation paper on the European Commission's proposal to revise the Waste Framework Directive (WFD). The Commission's proposal included a provision to enable the adoption by comitology of EU-wide minimum standards for waste management operations. A summary and analysis of the responses to this consultation is available on the DEFRA website at:
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) responded to DEFRA's consultation on the revision of the WFD. However, I am advised that DEFRA has no record of the CBI subsequently submitting proposals for UK and EU-wide standards on waste management. It follows that no discussions on such proposals have taken place with the Welsh Assembly Government.
Wood
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of methods to decontaminate surplus wood of toxic preservatives prior to being burned in commercial wood-burning furnaces or power plants. [157321]
Joan Ruddock: No specific assessment has been made by my Department of the effectiveness of methods to decontaminate surplus wood of toxic preservatives prior to being burned in commercial wood-burning furnaces or power plants.
However, DEFRA’s Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme (WIDP) has investigated ways of diverting waste wood from landfill. This is in response to recommendation 4 of the Biomass Task Force Report to the Government, published in October 2005. DEFRA’s general conclusion is that it is more cost effective to treat contaminated waste wood as a waste and to dispose of it in a Waste Incineration Directive (WID)-compliant facility than to attempt to decontaminate and burn it in commercial wood-burning furnaces or power plants as a non-waste. Such WID-compliant facilities can recover energy as electricity, or electricity and heat in the form of combined heat and power for industrial purposes.
Wood: Waste Disposal
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what legislative provisions apply to the safe disposal of timber treated with (a) copper chrome arsenate, (b) ammoniacal copper quaternary, (c) copper azole, (d) boron , (e) creosote and (f) pyrethroid and metal-based light organic solvent preservatives. [157976]
Joan Ruddock: All wastes must be recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and without using processes or methods which could harm the environment.
The Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/EC) is implemented through the Waste Incineration (England and Wales) Regulations 2002 (SI 2002 No. 2980) and
applies to the incineration of waste timber which has been treated with any of the substances mentioned.
The Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) has been transposed via the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002 (as amended). One aspect of the Landfill Directive is that landfill sites have to be categorised into one of three types: hazardous, non-hazardous or inert. Hazardous and inert wastes for landfill have to meet the waste acceptance criteria destined for landfill. The criteria are limits of contaminants permitted in waste, together with testing standards and procedures that must be used. Hazardous wastes are also required to be pre-treated before landfill. From 30 October 2007, all non-hazardous and inert wastes going to landfill will also need to meet the pre-treatment requirement.
Where such waste timber, which is classed as hazardous waste under regulation 6 of the Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005 No 894), is disposed of by means other than incineration or landfill in a facility with a capacity of more than 10 tonnes per day, the facility is subject to the integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) Directive (96/61/EC) which is implemented through the Pollution Prevention and Control(England and Wales) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000 No. 1973).
Duchy of Lancaster
Ministerial Responsibilities
Anne Main: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the reasons are for the time taken to produce the list of ministerial responsibilities; and if he will make a statement. [158570]
Edward Miliband: The new “List of Ministerial Responsibilities” has been published today. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of the House and are also available in the Vote Office for hon. Members.
Electoral Commission Committee
Political Parties: Finance
Mr. Maude: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission whether the Electoral Commission plans to appeal against the ruling of the High Court of August 2007 on impermissible donations to the UK Independence Party; and if he will make a statement. [158696]
Peter Viggers:
The Electoral Commission informs me that, on 7 August 2007, judgment was given on an application by the Commission to Westminster magistrates court under section 58 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 for forfeiture by the UK Independence Party of an amount equal to the value of certain donations the Party had accepted. The court found all of the donations in question to be from impermissible donors, but ordered the forfeiture of an amount equal in value to only some of those donations. On 21 August, the Electoral Commission commenced
appeal proceedings. The appeal is for a judicial review by the High Court of the magistrates court’s decision not to order forfeiture of an amount equal in value to the remainder of the donations that were the subject of the original application. A date for the hearing has not yet been set.
Health
Breast Cancer: Screening
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were screened for breast cancer per head of the population in (a) Hertfordshire and (b) England in the last year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [157516]
Ann Keen: The information requested is in the following table for 2005-06, the latest year for which figures are available. The figures are broken down by primary care trust (PCT) in Hertfordshire, along with figures for England. As the figures are for 2005-06, they are based on the previous PCT boundaries.
| Primary care trust | Eligible population( 1) | Number of women screened | Coverage( 2) (Percentage) |
| (1) Although the breast screening programme now invites women aged 50 to 70, these figures cover women aged 53 to 64 as coverage of the programme is best assessed using this age range group as women may be first called at any time between their 50(th) and 53(rd) birthday depending on the logistics of the local programme. In addition, not all programmes had extended invitations to women aged 70 for the whole of 2005-06, although all had by the end of 2005-06. Eligible population is the number of women in the resident population less those recorded as ineligible. (2) Less then three years since last test. Source: Breast Screening Programme England 2005-06 (National Statistics and the Information Centre). | |||
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