To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average length of time was for the Environment Agency to process a waste operation permit application from point of first application to final determination for the 2021-22 financial year; and what proportion of those applications took longer than six months to process.

The Environment Agency determined 221 new bespoke (tailored to a specific business activity) and standard rules waste permits (a set of fixed rules for common activities) for the financial year 2021-22.

The average period from when the permit application was received to when a permit was issued was 226 days. Of the 221 applications determined - 48% took over 6 months (180 days).