To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he intends to take with regard to circular 13/88 and the matter of charges for the collection of waste from mixed hereditaments.

I understand that some local authorities have not fully complied with the advice given by my hon. Friend the Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory) in his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Boscawen) on 4 July 1990.This guidance recognised that some of the waste from a composite property arises from the residential part of the property. My hon. Friend advised that the most sensible way for local authorities to treat such properties under their existing powers is that, once they have received a request to collect commercial waste from such properties, they should collect or empty free of charge at least one refuse sack or dustbin per week per property. They should also be prepared to consider alternative or additional arrangements on an individual basis.It is our intention to revise the Collection and Disposal of Waste Regulations 1988 to which circular 13/88 relates. The revision will take account of the changes brought about by the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and we shall take the opportunity to clarify the advice to local authorities about the treatment of refuse collection from composite hereditaments. However, no local authority should use our plans to revise the regulations as an excuse for delaying implementation of the policy that I have described.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what information he has on (a) the lowest and (b) the highest United Kingdom refuse disposal costs per tonne;(2) what information he has on

The costs of waste collection and disposal vary widely depending on the type of waste, method of collection or disposal, and proximity of disposal facilities. The Department has no information about highest and lowest costs, and the latest published figures for average costs are for 1986–87. These are set out in the table.

	total £ million	per tonne £
Gross revenue expenditure on waste disposal by local authorities in England and Wales	270	10
Gross revenue expenditure on waste collection by local authorities in England and Wales	515	29

The information should be treated with caution both because estimates of waste tonnage are not always reliable, and because the response rate from local authorities was very poor. Figures for later years cannot be produced because the base data are insufficiently reliable. The Department is currently reviewing the availability of waste statistics as a whole.