Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for standardising licence and fee arrangements across England and Wales applying to dealers in scrap metals.

The licensing fee charged to scrap metal dealers is set by each local authority on a cost recovery basis, to provide them with the funding they need to administer their licensing arrangements and to ensure compliance. While we are looking at the issue of licensing as part of the current review of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, it will be important to ensure that the arrangements continue to meet the costs of local authorities in administering their licensing arrangements.