Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted
Department's waste management vision lacks detail for effective business and local authority planning.
Recommendation
The Department claims it has a comprehensive vision and plan, but accepts more detail is needed for businesses and waste management authorities.44 The Department acknowledged that businesses and local government need more information on how extended producer responsibility and simpler recycling will work, as well as on its infrastructure pathway, which will set out the amount and type of waste facilities likely to be needed in England to 2035, if they are to build relevant infrastructure that is needed.45 The Department plans to publish its infrastructure pathway imminently. The Department told us that based on its modelling, it expects that existing energy-from-waste plants will continue to be needed in the long term as part of managing the shift away from sending waste to landfill.46 Data on waste
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and aims to provide more detail by November 2024, outlining timelines for extended producer responsibility fees (July 2025) and stating it is finalising and will publish the Waste Infrastructure Roadmap to guide waste management infrastructure investment.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: November 2024 2.2 All small and large obligated producers must pay a fee to the appropriate regulator of the pEPR scheme on registration. Producers must have registered by 1 October 2023 but the regulators have agreed, by means of a Regulatory Position Statement, that they will not enforce this requirement until after 31 May 2024, effectively giving producers an additional eight months to pay their fee. The level of the fee will be set out in the pEPR regulations. 2.3 The department expects producers obligated as ‘large producers’ under the pEPR regime to be issued with an invoice for their first year’s fees as soon after July 2025 as the Scheme Administrator has the processes in place to be able to do so. Final base fees (in £/tonne of packaging material placed on the market) can only be calculated after April 2025 which is the deadline for producers to report the amount of packaging placed on the market in 2024. Given these timeframes, the department expects to be regularly publishing estimates (“illustrative base fees”). These estimates are expected to be based in a first instance on data reported by producers for the year 2023. The process for subsequent years will need to be confirmed by the Scheme Administrator once established. 2.4 The department expects that local authorities will be informed of their estimated payment amount for 2025-26 in November 2024. 2.5 On 21 October 2023, the department published the government response to the Simpler Recycling consultation, formerly titled Consistency in Recycling in England. This laid out the materials in scope of collections and the implementation dates for Simpler Recycling. 2.6 The department also launched a Consultation on additional policies related to Simpler Recycling in England, and separately consulted the relevant parties on exemptions and statutory guidance for Simpler Recycling in England. Both consultations closed on 20 November 2023 and the department is currently analysing the responses. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: April 2024 5.2 The department is in the process of finalising analysis to enable publication of the first part of the ‘Waste Infrastructure Roadmap’. This will set out anticipated waste arisings to 2035, reflecting Defra’s Collection and Packaging Reforms (Simpler Recycling, extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) and a deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers), mapping this modelling against known waste management infrastructure for various waste streams, including organic wastes, and dry recyclables (paper/card, glass, metals, and plastics). The department is also preparing detailed analysis regarding residual waste management infrastructure. 5.3 Once published, the intention of the first part of the ‘Waste Infrastructure Roadmap’ is to provide a signal to investors as to where there is considered to be a likely over or under- provision of waste management capacity to target investment. However, the first part of the ‘Waste Infrastructure Roadmap’ will not detail where or how investment should be made and is meant to be a tool to support investors and local authorities in decision making. The department will be exploring what more could be done beyond signalling in due course.