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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to provide support for the private waste collection sector to help ensure the safe disposal of waste from key sectors during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government is continuing to work closely with the waste industry to understand the impact on the sector of COVID-19 and to provide the necessary and appropriate support.

The Chancellor has already announced unprecedented support for businesses in general including a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, deferral of VAT payments for firms until the end of June and £330 billion of Government-backed and guaranteed loans, including a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

Defra has been working with the waste industry to develop an online platform to facilitate the sharing of resources between local authorities and commercial operators. The platform, Waste Support, was launched on 16 April. In addition, the Environment Agency is taking a proportionate approach to regulation and has published a number of COVID-19 Regulatory Position Statements to address specific concerns around compliance with permit conditions, for instance on exceeding waste storage limits at permitted sites. These can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/covid-19-regulatory-position-statements