New clause 32 - Moratorium on new municipal incinerators
Waste and Emissions Trading Bill [Lords]
11:15 am
Mr Michael Meacher (Minister of State (the Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham West and Royton, Labour)
There are provisions under ''Waste Strategy 2000'' that will influence a local authority. One of those provisions is the payment of the landfill tax, which will increase by £3 from next year, and could increase by significantly more in future years, if the Chancellor so chooses.
The Bill also contains a precise requirement to ensure that the amount going to landfill is steadily reduced, which is a powerful physical driver. It must be reduced by 5 per cent. or 10 per cent. and to meet those targets it will not be easy for a local authority to say, ''Right, we have met our recycling targets, so now
we are going to shove it back in landfill.'' They will not be able to do that.
I therefore do not think that we need to use a command and control system of saying ''thou shalt not'' under any circumstances. I do not wish to be heavy-handed about this: I am sympathetic to the clause. The issue relates to the degree of enforcement required. In the general area of waste I am keen on enforcement, but in this case that would be going too far.
Amendment agreed to.
Amendment made: No. 18, in
clause 17, page 11, line 32, leave out subsection (5).—[Mr. Ainger.]
It being twenty-five minutes past Eleven o'clock, The Chairman adjourned the Committee without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
Adjourned till this day at half-past Two o'clock.