Clause 5 - Alteration of allocations under section 4
Waste and Emissions Trading Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Mr John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 37, in
clause 5, page 4, line 4, after 'may', insert
'with the agreement of the relevant waste disposal authorities'.
I have been trying to acquaint myself with the regulatory impact assessment before speaking to the amendment. As that is a rather long document, you will understand my slight hesitation, Miss Begg, before rising to my feet.
In a sense, the amendment follows from previous discussions. The point has been well made in the Committee that much of the Government's work on the Bill will be dependent upon a collaborative and co-operative partnership arrangement with the relevant authorities. We talked at length in the helpful discussion on the previous amendment, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Leominster, about the relationship between collection and disposal authorities. We also touched on the relationship between disposal authorities and Government, which the amendment draws into sharp focus. It refers to agreement with the relevant waste disposal authorities in respect of clause 5. It is vital that we understand how dependent we are on co-operation in the change of culture, which the Minister so appositely described, to achieve the ambitious targets in the proposal.
As we said earlier, we are anxious for maximum co-operation, consultation and agreement with the relevant parties. In that respect, it is important to recognise that there will be real concerns about the new targets. There will certainly be worries about the financial aspects and I hope that we will have time to explore such matters more fully later in the Bill when we discuss its trading and financial implications and some of the resource issues.
The Bill must reassure the disposal authorities, and through them the collection authorities, and all the parties who are critical to the proper working of the arrangement, that we are interested in their views and want their agreement. We want to consult them and to work with them to achieve the targets, and the amendment goes some way to achieving what we want in the right kind of spirit. I hope that the Minister will not demur too much from what we want to achieve and that he will accept the amendment on that basis.