The government will work to simplify and improve the definition of waste, permitting for different types of waste and Environment Agency (EA) inspections, after they were highlighted as areas preventing growth and productivity in the waste sector by a review carried out by the Cabinet Office.

As part of its Cutting Red Tape programme, which has seen a commitment to cut £10 billion of red tape, the government ran a review between July and September last year, receiving evidence from stakeholders from across the sector.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the waste sector has over 5,200 businesses in the UK, employing 106,000 people and producing a turnover of £18.5 billion a year. The review’s report says that the sector was chosen to be in the first phase of reviews due to its contribution to the UK economy and the fact that waste regulation impacts on businesses across the economy, ‘from small retailers to multinational manufacturing companies’.

Issues raised by review

Through the review, a number of issues with regulation were reported by the 90 respondents to the call for evidence, with principle themes raised being:

• Definition of waste: decisions on whether or not materials are waste are burdensome, costly and time consuming, with 32 per cent of businesses claiming he way their waste is defined is not proportional to risk.
• Waste recovery or disposal determinations: the approach to determining whether an activity involving the permanent deposit of waste on land is waste recovery or waste disposal is inconsistently applied.
• Hazardous waste: the rules for managing wastes designated as ‘hazardous’ and the benefits of registration of sites that produce hazardous waste are disproportionate compared to the levels of risk involved.
• Permitting: respondents to the review complained about the length of time taken to process permit applications, inconsistency between officials and in the use and application of ‘standard rules’.
• Guidance: according to some respondents, current guidance is not encouraging new techniques, practices or innovation and is not easy to locate.
• Exemptions: the requirement for registering exemptions for low-risk activities creates unnecessary burdens compared to the levels of risk.
• Fuel from waste: the way waste products are regulated and the lack of incentives act as barriers to creating a domestic market for fuels derived from waste.
• Producer responsibility: the systems around delivering producer responsibilities are too complex, costly and burdensome.
• Inspections: some inspections are being undertaken by officials without the necessary qualifications, experience or training to properly carry out an assessment.
• Interpretation and implementation of EU directives: The interpretation of EU directives in UK law means that there is little or no flexibility in how they are complied with, placing businesses at a disadvantage compared to competitors in other member states.

Other issues noted by respondents included the introduction of the requirement to have fire prevention plans without proper consultation with businesses, the duplication of requirements between different regulators, and the effectiveness of the duty of care requirement on producers to ensure their waste is managed correctly.

A number of respondents to the review questioned whether the government should even be undertaking another review into the waste sector, instead suggesting that its focus should be on enforcing the current regulatory framework.

Actions

The government says that it welcomes the findings from the review and that it has committed to an ambitious programme of reforms that will deliver ‘real changes’ to regulation in the waste sector.

The report reads: ‘We have developed an ambitious plan of action to tackle the issues identified. We are confident that by acting on and addressing the findings from this review, we will develop a more proportionate, coordinated and risk based approach to the regulation of the waste sector that will benefit business and regulators.’

A number of actions taken to address each of the main and side issues identified in the review are set out in the report, including:

• amending domestic guidance to revise and clarify the definition of ‘waste’ and ‘by-products’;
• publishing revised guidance for the Environmental Permitting Regime from March 2016, and working with business across the sector to investigate the issues and identify root causes of concerns, and put an action plan in place to address issues raised in the review; and
• implementing a programme to introduce professional environmental regulator status for staff to ensure inspectors have a broader understanding and knowledge of the challenges facing the sector and engaging with businesses on reviewing how the operational risk appraisal system could be improved and further deliver benefits of the ‘earned recognition’ principle.

As each of the actions outlined in the report is delivered, the Cabinet Office says that it will publish an assessment of the impacts and benefits to business. An update will also be produced in January 2017 to assess progress.

Decisive action

Following the publication of the report, Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: "This government is delivering on its commitment to free firms from £10 billion of heavy-handed over-regulation and build a more productive Britain. Hundreds of businesses responded to our Cutting Red Tape reviews and we are taking decisive action based on their experiences.

"Whenever we need to introduce new rules, we will consider their impact and make savings elsewhere. Through the Enterprise Bill, we are extending the scope of our deregulation target to cover the actions of regulators, going further than ever before to tackle troublesome red tape.

The ‘Cutting Red Tape Review of the waste and recycling sector’ report can be found on the government’s website.