Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of discontinuing the use of U1 waste exemptions.

In 2018, Defra and the Welsh Government consulted on reforming the waste exemptions element in the environmental permitting regime to prevent the use of exemptions to cover illegal activity.

The consultation specifically asked whether the Government should keep the U1 exemption with no changes to its conditions, change the exemption (amend its conditions) or remove the exemption and require activities it covers to be carried out under an environmental permit.

A Government response to the consultation was published on 26 November 2018. However, because of the breadth of impacts that will result from changing these exemptions, and the implications for different business practices that can emerge from relatively minor technical changes, Defra and the Welsh Government have been further considering the impacts of the proposed changes. A supplementary Government response will be published in the spring.