Clause 26 - Penalties under Chapter 1: General
Waste and Emissions Trading Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Michael Meacher (Minister of State (the Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham West and Royton, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman makes a strong case, and I have considerable sympathy with him. However, I say at the outset that there is no question of letting waste disposal authorities off the hook. The wording in subsection (1)(c) is qualified by the premise that ''the allocating authority may'', which does not
suggest that the authority will do what is described or that if large numbers of authorities queue up at the office, they will all be let off. The question is whether there should be flexibility.
The amendment would limit the power of the allocating authority to extend time in which to pay the whole or part of a penalty under chapter 1, as well as any interest on it. As the hon. Gentleman said, the amendment would prevent the time for payment from being extended by more than one year. Given the force of his argument, I am surprised that he tabled an amendment to paragraph (c)(i), as opposed to paragraph (c)(ii), for which he seemed to be arguing.
The amendment would reduce the flexibility available to the Secretary of State and to other allocating authorities in the case of a waste disposal authority landfilling more than its allocation or breaching other requirements of the landfill allowances scheme.