Metals: Waste Disposal

(asked on 22nd March 2023) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of (a) illegal scrap metal operators on the metals recycling sector and (b) waste crime on (i) the waste and recycling sector and (ii) UK economy.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 31st March 2023

Waste regulation is a devolved matter. Following our consultation on reform of the waste exemptions regime in England and Wales we plan to remove the T9 exemption for the recovery of scrap metal and the U16 exemption for using vehicle parts dismantled from end-of life vehicles. These operations will now require an environmental permit.

My Department has made no assessment of the potential impact of waste crime on the waste and recycling sector or the UK economy. Research for the Environmental Services Association (Counting the Cost of UK Waste Crime, 2021) estimated that waste crime costs the economy in England £924 million in 2018/19.

The Government has provided an additional £10 million per year for the Environment Agency to tackle waste crime. This additional funding has been invested into three key areas of waste crime – tackling illegal waste sites, illegal dumping and illegal exports.

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