My Lords, the Government take the issue of waste and resource efficiency very seriously and place real importance on this area. We always have in mind the need for strong policies to enhance and promote the circular economy and encourage actions to reduce, reuse and recycle. This instrument being presented before your Lordships makes technical changes to ensure the operability of waste-related legislation after exit. These technical and legal amendments will maintain the effectiveness and continuity of UK legislation that would otherwise be left partially inoperable following our exit from the EU. We wish to ensure that the law will continue to function as it does today. It will preserve the current regime, ensuring protection and maintaining improvement in the environment.
I can assure noble Lords that these adjustments represent no changes of policy, nor will they have an impact on businesses or the public, or indeed put any additional burden on or require any working practice changes for the Environment Agency or other UK enforcement bodies. Our recently announced resources and waste strategy sets out how we will preserve our stock of material resources by minimising waste, promoting resource efficiency and moving towards a circular economy. At the same time, we will minimise the damage caused to our natural environment by reducing and managing waste safely and carefully, and by tackling waste crime. It combines actions we will
now take with firm commitments for the coming years and gives a clear longer-term policy direction in line with our 25-year environment plan.
The instrument makes technical amendments to three waste-related Acts of Parliament: the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989, Part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and the Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003. It also amends 14 related EU regulations and decisions to ensure operability. The general changes in this instrument include amending references to the European Union, EU institutions and EU administrative processes to UK equivalents, and updating legal references to refer to relevant UK legislation. The instrument introduces modifications into the Acts of Parliament and retained direct EU legislation relating to waste, so that references to EU directives continue to function after exit day as they function before exit day.
One purpose of these modifications is to ensure continuity as to which public bodies exercise certain functions. Those obligations and discretions placed on member states under the directives will continue to be exercised after exit by the same appropriate authorities, appropriate agencies and/or local authorities before exit. In this context, “appropriate authority” means the Secretary of State in relation to England and each of the devolved Administrations in relation to their respective parts of the United Kingdom. “Appropriate agency” means the Environment Agency in relation to England and the relevant environment agency or body in the other parts of the United Kingdom.
The main amendments made to these EU regulations by this instrument are therefore to insert new provisions which set out modifications to the way in which references to EU directives in the EU regulations are to be read on and after exit day. Additionally, technical operability amendments are made to account for the fact that we are no longer a member state. The UK will no longer be allowed to authorise participation in the EU’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, known as EMAS.
In the United Kingdom, verification will be through a conformity assessment body accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. In the meantime, verifiers can still apply to be accredited EMAS verifiers through other member states offering the service. Defra made all the businesses and organisations directly impacted aware of this prior to legislation being laid.
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Under the waste framework directive, there is a target to recycle 50% of UK household waste by 2020. As part of the technical amendments made by Regulation 21 of this instrument, we have made changes to ensure that the Secretary of State publishes a report called the “progress report” on whether this target has been met in respect of England. This progress report must be published by the Secretary of State before 1 January 2022. This instrument does not create an obligation on the devolved Administrations to publish such a report and it will be for each country to address these matters.
The instrument also revokes directly applicable EU legislation relating to waste. Some of this legislation is being revoked because it is redundant in a domestic context. For example, Commission Decisions 97/622/EC
and 2009/851/EC set the format of questionnaires that EU member states complete and return to the European Commission every three years in relation to the implementation of EU directives on packaging waste and waste batteries respectively.
Some of the directly applicable EU legislation is being revoked because its requirements are already embedded in UK legislation. For example, Commission Decision 2003/138/EC covers material and component coding standards for end-of-life vehicles, and another, Commission Decision 2002/151/EC, relates to minimum standards for the certificate of destruction for those vehicles. In both cases, the requirements of these decisions are already set out fully in the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003.
We have worked very closely with the devolved Administrations on this instrument and, where it relates to devolved matters, they have given their full support and consent. These regulations will help to ensure that our waste management legislation continues to operate as intended, and as before, following EU exit. I beg to move.