To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the recycling rates for unitary authorities in England are; and what the improvement target for each is. [100827]

The information requested can be found on the Best Value Performance Indicator Website of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, reference: www.bvpi.gov.uk

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action her Department plans to take against those local authorities who fail to meet their recycling targets and continue to export waste out of their area of responsibility for landfill; and if she will make a statement. [115947]

The Secretary of State has powers under section 15 of the Local Government Act 1999 to act where authorities are failing to deliver best value. The way in which these powers would be used in support of statutory performance standards for recycling and composting of household waste is set out in Annex A of Guidance on Municipal Waste Management Strategies (DETR March 2001); http://www defra gov.uk/environment/waste/management/ guidance/mwms/index.htm The use of these powers will be considered where appropriate in support of the recycling targets. The Government have made clear that they will work with local authorities to ensure that failures are minimised, and that the principles that underpin the Waste Strategy, including the waste hierarchy and the proximity principle, are reflected in municipal waste management strategies.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many applications for modifications to waste management licences were received by the Environment Agency or its predecessor regulatory authority in each year since 1990. [116199]

The Environment Agency only has reliable information on waste management licence modifications from 1999–2000. Details are as follows:

• 1999–2000 334
• 2000–01 264
• 2001–02 236

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what guidelines the Environment Agency uses to determine acceptable distances between (a) waste disposal and (b) landfill sites and neighbouring housing. [116200]

The initial decision on the location of waste facilities is a planning matter. Planning permission, which is a prerequisite for a waste management licence or

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the waste sites and their addresses in the Leeds Metropolitan District, indicating those which have submitted hazardous waste landfill conditioning plans to the Environment Agency. [116019]

The information requested is set out in the following table.a waste facility PPC permit from the Agency, can be refused if the local authority consider the site being proposed is in an inappropriate location.In dealing with its own licences/permits, the Agency adopts a site specific risk based approach on the Source—Pathway—Receptor principle and applies permit conditions accordingly, including monitoring requirements with indicative trigger levels which initiate specified actions by the site operator.Many existing waste sites have licences granted by predecessor authorities, based on a variety of approaches to the proximity of houses. The location of all occupied property is taken into account through the Operator and Pollution Risk Appraisal (OPRA) scheme, which determines the frequency of Agency inspections to individual waste sites. The higher the risk the site poses and the closer occupied premises are located, the higher the OPRA score and, therefore, the more frequent the inspections.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the prosecutions brought by the Environment Agency or by predecessor regulatory authorities for breaking the conditions of (a) management site licences and (b) management site licences for bonded asbestos since 1990, broken down by (i) address of site and (ii) type of waste; and which prosecutions were successful. [116211]

The Environment Agency has supplied the relevant data which will be placed in the House Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the Environment Agency's agreed amount of waste tonnage per year processed under site management licences is in (a) Leeds Metropolitan District and (b) West Yorkshire. [116325]

The Environment Agency is unable to provide the information in the form requested. However, the following information may be helpful in making a comparison.In the year 2000–01, 632,912 tonnes of waste passed through waste transfer stations in the Leeds area compared to 1,543,799 tonnes in West Yorkshire as a whole (Bradford—471,162 tonnes; Calderdale—142,069 tonnes; Kirklees—233,847 tonnes; and Wakefield—63,809 tonnes).In the same period, 243,724 tonnes of waste passed through waste treatment facilities in the Leeds area compared to 427,226 tonnes in West Yorkshire as a whole (Bradford—4,045 tonnes; Calderdale—806 tonnes; Kirklees—12,794 tonnes; and Wakefield—165,857 tonnes).

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the registered licensed waste disposal and landfill sites in the Leeds Metropolitan District area. [116333]

The Environment Agency has supplied the relevant data which will be placed in the House Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the average operator pollution risk appraisal score for waste disposal and landfill sites was in England in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [116334]

The average OPRA score for all landfill sites in the calendar year 2002 was 64.27.The average for non landfills was 66.33.The average for all sites was 65.70.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when municipal solid waste incinerators have been found to be operating in breach of conditions on their operations imposed by (a) planning consents and (b) pollution control consents in each year since 1997; and what assessment was made of the potential damage to the health of local residents in each case. [117530]

The numbers of unauthorised releases recorded by the Environment Agency for municipal waste incinerators since 1997 are shown in the tables.Municipal waste incineration plant operators are required by their permits to notify the Agency of any breaches of emission limits. Upon receipt of the notification Agency staff make an assessment of the likely effect of the breach on human health and the environment. The Agency considers that none of the breaches has had any significant effect on human health or the environment.With respect to the number of breaches of planning consents, this is the responsibility of the local planning authorities in whose areas the incinerators are located. My officials are making inquiries of the appropriate local planning authorities and I shall write to the hon. Member as soon as possible with the outcome of this exercise.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 17 March 2003, Official Report, column 506W, on waste management, whether the data used in the answer are the same as that given in the part of the Environment Agency Register of Waste Management Licences that applies to monitoring of emissions. [117570]

The municipal waste incinerators listed in the answer are regulated under Part 1 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 or the under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (SI2000 No. 1973). Incinerator operators are required by conditions of authorisations issued under these pieces of legislation to report breaches of air emission limit values. The data in the answer are derived from these self-reported breaches to the Environment Agency.The registers holding the data used in the answer are not the same as the data held as part of the Environment Agency Register of Waste Management Licences, which are kept under Part 2 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.