Paul Holmes (Chesterfield, Liberal Democrat)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate his Department has made of the quantity of recovered fuel oil which was exported to other European countries in the last three years.

Dan Norris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Wansdyke, Labour)

DEFRA has not made an estimate of this kind. However, following the judgment of the Appeal Court in the OSS Group Ltd v. Environment Agency case, the Environment Agency published on 1 August 2008 an interim statement on the regulation of waste oil. The Environment Agency's statement is available on its website and sets out the circumstances in which the Agency considers that fuel derived wholly or partially from waste lubricating oil has been fully recovered and has ceased to be waste. The statement also sets out the specification that currently applies in these circumstances.

The Environment Agency's interim statement was published pending the development by the Agency of an end-of-waste protocol for fuels derived from waste lubricating oils. The Government have notified the Agency's post consultation draft of its end-of-waste protocol "for the production and use of processed fuel oil from waste lubricating oils" to the European Commission in compliance with Technical Standards Directive (98/34/EC). The initial three-month standstill period required under the directive ends on 30 November 2009.