To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent meetings he has had with companies about (a) the polluter pays principle and (b) the disposal of toxic waste. (154590)

Neither my ministerial colleagues nor I have held any recent meetings with companies specifically on the polluter pays principle or on toxic waste deposits. However, Lord Rooker and my hon. Friend the Member for Exeter (Mr. Bradshaw), then Minister of State at DEFRA, met Environment Agency officials on 22 May 2007 concerning toxic waste disposal.

The “polluter pays” is an underpinning principle of European and domestic environmental legislation under which those responsible for pollution must pay the costs of measures necessary to eliminate that pollution, or reduce it to comply with the standards laid down by public authorities.