The Landfill
(Scotland) Regulations 2003 (SSI 2003/235) came into force on 11 April
this year. Those regulations were recommended to Parliament following a
debate in the Transport and the Environment Committee on 4 March 2003,
and were approved on 13 March 2003. The Executive was grateful then,
and is grateful now, for the support both in committee and in Parliament
for those regulations. Sustainable waste management demands that we reduce
the volume and manage the disposal of
waste safely.
Our landfill regulations act on those priorities and are an important step
in ensuring that the disposal of waste does not threaten either human health
or the wider environment. Parliament supported those aims in March and
I expect that it will continue to support them now.
It is perhaps
appropriate at this juncture to expand on our wider European obligations.
I understand that I have circa 10 minutes of debating time to fill so,
at this point, I should welcome one of the unsung heroes of the parliamentary
press core, the Press Association reporter. Unlike his colleagues in both
the tabloid and quality press, who have failed to make it this morning,
he is in the press gallery, and I welcome him.
Fergus Ewing
(Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): Why
did they not make it?
Allan Wilson:
That is a good question.
We aim to achieve
a reduction by 2010 of 75 per cent in the 1995 levels of biodegradable
municipal waste going to landfill sites. We then hope to reduce those levels
by 50 per cent by 2015 and by a further 35 per cent by 2020. We intend
to ensure that continuing landfills accept only permitted types of waste
and are managed so as to provide documented protection for the environment
and human health.
I could go on
about the detail of those regulations if members were interested, but as
there appears to be no expression of interest from the Opposition benches,
I shall move swiftly on to mention the fact that they are in force. The
regulations now provide us with the opportunity to have a consistent regime
for all landfills in Scotland. The requirement for operators to produce
site conditioning plans, and the consequential increased regulatory powers,
will enable the Scottish Environment Protection
Agency, which
works on our behalf, to take a more active and effective role in controlling
the construction, operation and aftercare of landfills. As a result of
the regulations, landfills will be constructed and operated to much higher
standards, and we are ensuring that they will not therefore pose
a hazard for
future generations in years to come.
Mrs Margaret
Ewing (Moray) (SNP): What will happen where
landfill sites are already overfull and have to be closed? The waste from
Inverness is now being transported to the constituency of my friend Stewart
Stevenson, which leads to much more traffic congestion and to other health
hazards involved
in the transportation
of waste. I find that a worrying prospect.
Allan Wilson:
I am familiar with the situation in Inverness,
and I share Mrs Ewing's concerns. Not just in Inverness, but anywhere where
waste is transported, we abide by the proximity principle in the development
of both area and national waste management plans. That should provide for
the
disposal of
waste as close to its source as is feasible. It is for local authorities
and others involved in the management of waste to ensure that the proximity
principle applies as far as is possible.
I turn now to
the benefits of the regulations that we are considering today. As
I said, the regulations are in force and SEPA is acting on them as we speak,
and I believe that the three amendments in the amendment regulations that
I am recommending to Parliament today will make them even more
effective.
Both the Subordinate
Legislation Committee and the Transport and the Environment Committee drew
attention to the fact that partnerships, although legal persons in Scots
law, were not among those entities against which action could be taken
under the regulations. Although action could be taken
against the
individual members of partnerships, we were happy to acknowledge the value
of the committees' suggestions earlier in the year. I undertook to take
the first possible opportunity to amend the regulations to deal with that
omission. The new session of Parliament is barely a month old, so I hope
that the members of the new committees feel that we have fulfilled that
commitment to Parliament promptly.
At the same
time, the Executive would like to use this opportunity to make two further
amendments to the original regulations. The first is a clarification of
the definition of waste for the purpose of those
regulations.
As was made clear during the debate in the Transport and the Environment
Committee, we wish to include among the kinds of waste whose landfill will
now be regulated certain waste streams-notably agricultural waste-that
are not currently covered by the controlled waste regime.
The original
regulations were accompanied by a provision to commence part of the Environment
Act 1995 to do precisely that. We have since decided, in consultation with
SEPA, that it would provide greater clarity to amend the definition of
waste in the regulations. The amendment regulations before
Parliament
therefore refer specifically to the European waste catalogue, which is
a very broad listing of wastes. By referring to that catalogue, we can
be sure that landfill of the whole range of wastes is covered by our legislation
and that we are therefore adopting best European Union-wide practice. That
does not depart from the original intention of the regulations that Parliament
approved, nor does it introduce any new burdens that were not envisaged
at that time. The amendment merely clarifies the
broad ambit
of the regulations and puts them in their broader European context.
Finally, our
third amendment will correct a minor typographical error in the original
regulations. In the box at paragraph 3(14)(a) of schedule 6 to the original
regulations, there is an incorrect reference to
"paragraph
1(9) of Schedule 5". That should be amended to read, "paragraph 1(6)
of Schedule 5". That is a
fairly significant
amendment. Schedule 6(3)(14) concerns serving notices, and the provision
about serving notices is found in paragraph 1(6) of schedule 5, not in
paragraph 1(9).
Stewart Stevenson
(Banff and Buchan) (SNP): What time did he
get to bed last night?
Allan Wilson:
Not long enough ago, that is for sure.
I assure members
that, although that error was present in the original regulations, no proceedings
were compromised thereby. By correcting it now, we will enable SEPA to
serve notices where required.
The amendment
regulations that are being put before Parliament today are simply to clarify
the original regulations and to make them more effective in establishing
an improved landfill regime. That is the purpose for which the Transport
and the Environment Committee and the Subordinate Legislation
Committee recommended
the original regulations to Parliament in the previous session, and for
which Parliament voted in their favour at that juncture.
I therefore
look forward to-and I am sure that I can expect-the continued support of
Parliament for those minor technical amendments. I commend them to the
chamber.
I move,
That the Parliament
agrees that the draft Landfill (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2003 be
approved.
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