Hazardous Waste

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what responsibilities local authorities have in relation to the (a) movement of hazardous waste and (b) identification of material contained in landfill sites. [134453]

Amounts of council tax collected¹
								£ million
	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
Inner London
City of London	1,331	1,417	1,571	1,830	2,091	2,280	2,551	2,644
Camden	37,056	43,630	50,506	58,740	60,660	60,840	65,780	69,600
Greenwich	29,234	36,751	42,630	46,802	48,267	50,108	52,074	56,861
Hackney	20,781	23,071	26,801	26,618	27,787	29,625	36,716	44,568
Hammersmith & Fulham	30,740	35,882	44,846	47,912	50,515	53,881	57,654	58,743
Islington	26,040	31,335	38,133	40,736	43,349	43,783	45,786	46,640
Kensington &, Chelsea	34,281	37,334	42,781	45,354	49,832	49,102	55,316	64,412
Lambeth	31,512	31,924	41,908	42,931	46,740	46,401	58,396	65,919
Lewisham	30,418	32,537	41,976	43,267	46,284	52,070	57,426	62,481
Southwark	26,694	34,584	38,100	43,211	45,193	52,919	55,892	61,468
Tower Hamlets	15,380	18,419	21,742	23,978	27,478	31,839	34,662	38,699
Wandsworth	27,209	35,719	38,825	30,242	36,648	40,158	46,130	41,475
Westminster	22,708	25,260	28,980	31,866	34,074	36,137	41,036	44,996
Total Inner London	333,384	387,863	458,799	483,487	518,918	549,143	609,419	658,506
Outer London
Barking & Dagenham	17,906	19,475	22,858	25,951	27,766	30,060	32,712	34,808
Barnet	62,897	68,042	75,680	83,756	87,787	97,072	103,031	108,870
Bexley	38,328	40,037	44,750	49,845	55,312	58,926	64,237	69,686
Brent	27,083	27,051	38,836	41,902	48,516	52,570	55,255	60,805
Bromley	55,687	60,924	68,076	71,584	78,385	86,353	97,867	105,146
Croydon	56,216	57,745	64,627	73,295	83,487	84,302	90,750	92,588
Haling	42,784	45,009	53,922	60,563	66,164	70,814	77,710	84,178
Enfield	44,005	46,958	53,461	57,529	63,150	67,115	75,117	82,041
Haringey	33,226	35,330	43,165	46,422	49,023	52,552	55,531	59,516
Harrow	n/a	39,659	46,560	51,503	55,675	60,842	67,748	72,747
Havering	39,055	42,674	49,577	54,880	59,243	66,473	72,568	79,367
Hillingdon	41,846	43,968	49,477	55,678	61,194	67,696	74,588	81,231
Hounslow	35,478	39,162	44,479	47,402	52,496	58,158	64,650	69,485
Kingston upon Thames	28,585	30,454	33,410	36,394	42,231	47,128	52,594	58,606
Merton	34,447	37,134	42,613	46,781	49,435	54,335	60,845	65,371
Newham	19,112	20,040	24,894	26,810	30,400	33,735	38,069	41,568
Redbridge	37,513	39,582	45,190	49,297	55,261	59,162	64,173	69,449
Richmond upon Thames	47,754	51,112	56,319	57,691	64,420	70,465	77,674	85,077
Sutton	33,569	35,534	39,166	43,716	47,441	50,690	55,524	61,623
Waltham Forest	32,313	36,215	44,685	44,065	46,192	49,544	53,829	57,988
Total Outer London	n/a	816,105	941,745	1,025,064	1,123,578	1,217,992	1,334,472	1,440,150
Total Greater London	n/a	1,203,968	1,400,544	1,508,551	1,642,496	1,767,135	1,943,891	2,098,656
¹ Irrespective of the financial year to which it relates,
n/a = not available

I have been asked to reply.Local authorities have no regulatory responsibilities regarding the movements of hazardous waste unless they are directly involved in the production, collection or processing of the waste in question. Movements of hazardous waste in Great Britain are controlled by the Special Waste Regulations 1996 and enforced by the Environment Agency. The Regulations require that hazardous waste be monitored from the moment it is discarded until it reaches its final point of treatment, disposal or recovery. The Environment Agency is the regulatory authority for controlling landfill sites and local authorities have no role in regulating licensed or permitted sites. However, under contaminated land legislation, local authorities do become responsible for closed landfill sites in certain circumstances.

Volume 412: debated on Wednesday 29 October 2003