Mr Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat)

I am grateful to the Minister for his exposition in response to the amendments that my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Sue Doughty) and I tabled. I assure him that the intention was not to make it more difficult to meet the targets—far from it. We want industry and waste disposal authorities to meet them. We tabled the amendments because we wanted to ensure that the flexibility that the Minister wants people to have in meeting those targets did not create loopholes through which people could take their waste. The three-year storage arrangement opened up the possibility of people classifying waste as being in storage, even though that may not have been the intention when the waste was first received. The purpose of the amendments was to prevent that loophole from arising.

We are also concerned about multi-faceted sites—those that are not simply landfill sites or waste transfer stations, but which have multi-faceted functions. Waste could be moved around such sites and reclassified accordingly. The Minister may say that that will not happen, but that is the issue raised by the amendments.

Having heard the Minister's response, I am happy not to pursue the amendments. However, I hope that he will take our concerns on board. They may be misplaced, but I hope that he will ensure that they do not become a reality.

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