Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007. The noble Lord said: Again, I have a short and a long speech. For the convenience of the Committee, I shall use the short one. We are meeting here to debate regulations which make a number of technical changes, including amending some references in the 2005 regulations to reflect the original policy intention, as well as changes to allow for the electronic submission of data and the issuing of packaging waste recovery notes and packaging waste export recovery notes. An online system, the national packaging waste database, has been set up to provide an electronic system alongside the paper-based system, providing a more efficient way of doing business. The regulations before the Committee also contain other technical changes, including a proposal to change the criteria requiring an operational plan to be submitted by individually registered businesses. Under the new rules, only businesses with an obligation of more than 500 tonnes must provide a plan. Fewer businesses—only 100—will therefore need to submit an operational plan. The proposals bring a further change that affects exporters, giving environment agencies the power to refuse accreditation to exporters who have committed, for example, Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations offences. The new conditions of accreditation will include a specific reference to compliance with the trans-frontier shipment requirements. In addition, where material is exported for reprocessing overseas, the end destination reprocessor will have to be identified by the exporter, not just by the interim recipient. That is necessary for the exporter to comply with the packaging waste directive requirement that overseas recovery and/or recycling operations can count towards targets only if undertaken in conditions broadly equivalent to those in the EU. I have recently answered several questions on this in your Lordships’ House. It is not possible to export any waste for landfill; that is quite illegal. It is a question of recycling and recovery, and we must know what is going to happen at the end. Subject to the House’s approval, the regulations will come into effect in the middle of this month. It is a pat on the back for industry that UK packaging waste recovery has risen by 29 percentage points—from 30 to 59 per cent—between 1997 and 2005. Recycling rose to 54 per cent, from around half that figure some 10 years ago. The proposed changes, supported by a formal consultation last year, will, if adopted by the House, approve accessibility for stakeholders through electronic means, and give us greater confidence in the regulations’ ability to deliver the directive’s recovery and recycling targets which the United Kingdom must meet by 2008. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007. 9th Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Rooker.)