Biofuels

Mr. Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the impact of the rules governing the exemptions to the Waste Management Regulations on (a) the development of biogas facilities and (b) the production of energy via commercial anaerobic digestion.

Mr. Bradshaw
No specific assessment has been made by my Department.

DEFRA has started a comprehensive review of exemptions from waste management licensing and has produced a discussion document on the options and issues. The review will take a risk-based approach to the provision of exemptions and will ultimately complement the environmental permitting regime, which is due to come into force in April 2008. My Department will be formally consulting on proposals and representations will be invited from all sectors of industry affected by the proposed regulations.

In order to encourage the greater uptake of anaerobic digestion, I am also pleased that the Environment Agency has agreed to develop a standard for digestate in 2007-08. This will allow modern regulatory principles to be applied to the use of this material and bring certainty to when it is considered to be “fully recovered”. This should help to facilitate the development of markets for digestate.