Clause 1 - Duties of the Secretary of State
Municipal Waste Recycling Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Jonathan Sayeed (Mid Bedfordshire, Conservative)
I thank the hon. Lady, who has pre-empted my next remarks. I was going to acknowledge that her original intention was for the Bill to apply to Wales, but that that was forestalled by the Government's other intentions. However, it would not have been not beyond the wit of man—nor even the wit of this Government—to ensure that arrangements were made, perhaps through secondary legislation, to allow the Bill to encompass Wales and yet permit the necessary discussions. I think that the Welsh Assembly is due to finalise the actual arrangements that would apply to Wales. I shall
leave my remarks on that point there, and hope that the Minister will respond to it.
My next headline point is the funding of local authorities. The Minister has stated on several occasions that if central Government impose duties on local authorities, they must provide the resources. The Minister might tell us that that will be dealt with by some other Bill or in some other manner, but the fact is that this Bill intends to put extra costs on local authorities, at least to begin with. I should like him to explain how local authorities will be assisted.