Instruments Reported
Seventh Report
The Committee has considered the following instruments
and has determined that the special attention of the House should
be drawn to them on the grounds specified.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations
2006 (SI 2006/3289)
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Waste
Management Licensing (England and Wales) Regulations 2006 (SI
2006/3315)
Summary: These Regulations are intended to make
sure that waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is
stripped out of the normal waste stream, does not end up in landfill,
and is treated in an environmentally responsible manner. They
will have a fundamental impact on the collection, treatment, recovery
and disposal of such waste, through a set of complex new arrangements.
The Regulations implement a European Directive,
but full implementation in July 2007 will be almost two years
later than the EU deadline.
Due to the impact of the Regulations and due to
the delay in implementation, we took oral evidence from the Department
of Trade and Industry. This was the first occasion we have chosen
to do this, justified by the importance of the instrument and
the usefulness of probing more deeply into its policy and process.
We hope that this development in our scrutiny role is of use to
the House.
We conclude that, while the delay in implementation
has been undesirable, the Government have made sustained efforts
to ensure that a practical system for processing WEEE is in place
from July 2007.
These Regulations are drawn to the special attention
of the House on the ground that they give rise to issues of public
policy likely to be of interest to the House.
1._The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have
made the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations
2006 (SI 2006/3289: "the WEEE Regulations") under section
2(2) of European Communities Act 1972. They transpose the main
provisions of Directive 2002/96/EC as amended by the provisions
of Directive 2003/108/EC ("the Directive"). An Explanatory
Memorandum (EM), Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) and Transposition
Note have also been provided. A full transcript of oral evidence
from DTI officials is appended to this Report.
PURPOSE OF THE WEEE REGULATIONS
2._The WEEE Regulations are intended to make sure
that waste electrical and electronic equipment is stripped out
of the normal waste stream, does not end up in landfill, and is
treated in an environmentally responsible manner (Q 25). They
will have a fundamental impact on the collection, treatment, recovery
and disposal of such waste, through a set of new arrangements
of considerable complexity. The Regulations provide for:
- WEEE that arises in the United Kingdom to be
collected at designated collection facilities and then transported
to an authorised facility for treatment, recovery or recycling;
- the registration of all producers who put such
equipment on the market in the UK, so that their financial obligations
for the collection and treatment of WEEE can be calculated; and
- distributors to take back certain types of WEEE
free of charge.
3._The Regulations do not place obligations on local
authorities[1], but most
household WEEE will be collected at civic amenity sites run by
local authorities. Most local authorities support the Government's
approach[2] and the process
of getting them to sign up their civic amenity sites to provide
facilities for Designated Collection Facilities (DCFs) is underway[3]
(Q 20).
4._In parallel with the WEEE Regulations, the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have laid the Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Waste Management Licensing)
(England and Wales) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/3315), which
ensure that those treating WEEE operate under a waste management
licence and comply with the requirements of the Directive. DTI
have indicated that further Regulations are to be made, to allow
for producers to be charged for the collection, treatment and
recycling of WEEE containing hazardous substances between April
and June 2007.
TIMETABLE AND INFRACTION PROCEEDINGS
5._The WEEE Regulations come fully into force on
1 July 2007 but the Directive required implementation by August
2005: the European Commission has started infraction proceedings
against the United Kingdom (and a number of other Member States)
for late transposition (Q3).
6._In their evidence, DTI said that the Directive
was one of the most challenging pieces of European legislation
that they had had to implement, due to the practical difficulties
of developing a system to deal with the collection and disposal
of WEEE (Q 14). During the process of agreeing the Directive,
there may well have been too little understanding of these problems:
"… the most difficult part was where people signed up
to the Directive who did not quite understand what it actually
meant in practice within Member States and in particular one area
where it was envisaged that individual producer responsibility[4]
would kick in for new electrical equipment. That has proved technically
impossible … Again, we are not the only Member State, indeed
no Member State has managed to tackle individual producer responsibility."
(Q 4) The Commission's planned review of the Directive in 2008
(Q 33) will provide an opportunity to re-examine the principle
of "individual producer responsibility". DTI commented
that knowledge of the difficulties in implementing the WEEE Directive
may have led the European Commission to decide against bringing
forward any further "producer responsibility" Directives.
(Q 14)
7._Despite three previous consultation exercises,
in late 2005 the Government launched an implementation review:
"In December 2005 the Minister decided to call a halt at
that stage … 'to draw breath', to re-look at the whole situation,
to make sure that the systems were in place and to re-consult
industry and everybody else about the way forward." (Q 8)
The DTI decided that it was more important to establish a firm
basis for the new arrangements than to achieve purely paper-based
compliance with the Directive's timetable. DTI now considered
that the capacity was in place for the new arrangements: "We
have asked the treatment organisations whether they have got enough
capacity and the interesting answer they have given me is, 'Yes,
we have got enough but we want to bring more on-stream …'
… Literally the day after we laid the regulations we saw
announcements being made of new facilities coming on-stream"
(Q 49).
PUBLICITY: PRODUCERS, RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS
8._We had seen claims that producers and retailers
did not understand their imminent obligations[5].
DTI described their efforts to reinforce awareness among producers
and retailers through a series of seminars across the UK (Q 48).
DTI were concerned that the obligations resulting from the new
arrangements should not impose disproportionate costs on small
businesses.[6] Repeated
delays in implementation had made business, particularly small
businesses, cynical as to whether the Government would finally
activate the new arrangements. The DTI recognised that publicity
needed particularly to target these stakeholders (Q 47).
9._The Department had taken a conscious decision
to delay publicity aimed at consumers until nearer July 2007,
because they wanted to ensure that the new arrangements for collection
of WEEE were in place before generating consumer expectations[7]
(Q 19). They acknowledged their obligations in this regard (Q
24).
EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS
10._We asked how the Government planned to monitor
implementation, and how they would measure the success of the
policy. DTI told us that the European Commission had set a per
capita target weight of recovered WEEE against which each Member
State would have to report. But the DTI considered success to
go beyond this, to ensure that "everything that does end
up in landfill has been treated properly according to the legislation
that was laid by DEFRA on the treatment guidance … The main
success for the Department is a system that works effectively
in the UK and does what it says on the tin, rather than an arbitrary
number." (Q 78) The Government should be in a position to
report to Parliament on the effectiveness of the Regulations in
early 2009 (Q 79).
11._We explored a number of other issues with the
Department, including the management of the secondary legislation
implementing these obligations (QQ71-74).
CONCLUSION
12._The Department's evidence underlined the scale
of the challenge faced in implementing the WEEE Directive practically
as well as legislatively. The Government's experience demonstrates
the critical importance of close and effective consultation with
stakeholders during the negotiation of European legislation, to
ensure that there is a realistic assessment of the practicality
of any new obligations agreed. Continued consultation is of course
equally necessary during the later phase of implementation.
13._It cannot be desirable that the Government implement
European legislation two years after the agreed deadline but,
given the circumstances which the Department described to us,
we recognise the force of the considerations which led them at
the end of 2005 to take longer over developing a robust set of
practical new arrangements, even though this has exposed them
to infraction proceedings by the European Commission.
1 In their capacity as Waste Collection or Waste Disposal
Authorities. Back
2
The summary of responses to the July 2006 consultation (http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file35961.pdf)
shows that most local authority respondents support the approach
followed in the Regulations, albeit with some identified concerns.
Back
3
Local authorities that do so will have to comply with the code
of practice for DCFs, which will require minimum levels of separate
storage at sites. In return, they will receive some funding from
the Distributor Take-back Scheme and their WEEE will be removed
by Producer Compliance Schemes for treatment without charge. Back
4
The WEEE Directive provides that each producer shall be responsible
for financing the management costs of waste from his own products
put on the market after 13 August 2005: this is the principle
of individual producer responsibility. Back
5
See Eversheds news release of 14 December 2006: "Is WEEE
regulation a waste of time? Research points to low levels of concern
over obligations or compliance and guaranteed consumer price rises."
http://www.eversheds.com/uk/Home/News_room/newsroom.page
Back
6
See paragraphs 120 to 123 of the RIA. Back
7
For example, private householders will be able to return WEEE
to retailers who offer "in-store take-back" but the
Regulations also allow for a Distributor Take-back Scheme, as
an alternative to in-store take-back for retailers and other distributors
who join. The alternative will probably be based on the existing
network of local authority civic amenity sites. Retailers will
be required to contribute to a fund that will pay local authorities
to upgrade civic amenity sites put forward as Designated Collection
Facilities (DCFs). These retailers, probably the majority, will
not have to offer in-store take back of WEEE but will direct consumers
to the nearest DCF. Back
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