Waste Management Carriers: Regulation
Debate between Lord Vaux of Harrowden and Baroness Hayman of Ullock(1 month ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The key thing, as I mentioned earlier, is that the EA has made some arrests—since September last year, 22 arrests have been linked to waste crime. However, it is important to note that arrests have to be made by the police—the noble Lord made that point quite clearly—and that is done working very closely with the Environment Agency. One way to increase this is to make sure that the agencies work very well together. One issue is that police arrests are not tracked centrally, and we are continuing to work with the Home Office on how we can improve that joint working.
Lord Vaux of Harrowden (CB)
My Lords, the noble Baroness is quite right when she says that the illegal disposal of waste is attractive to criminals. That is because it is lucrative, so what steps are the Government taking to make it cheaper and easier for people and businesses to dispose of waste legally?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
One thing we need to do is to work more closely with local authorities, because waste collection and disposal is the responsibility of local authorities. Much of the problem is that carriers, brokers and dealers can get away with behaving irresponsibly, which is why we are looking at the current registration system. We need to make it harder for rogue operators to find work, fundamentally: if they cannot get the work in the first place, if they cannot get the waste to begin with, they cannot dump it. It needs to be tackled from all sides.
Avian Flu: Turkeys in Norfolk
Debate between Lord Vaux of Harrowden and Baroness Hayman of Ullock(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
As I said, 85% of turkeys that are expected for the Christmas dinner table have already been slaughtered and are available either fresh or frozen, so I do not see that that will be an issue for this year.
Lord Vaux of Harrowden (CB)
I refer to my interests in the register. My noble friend Lord Trees mentioned the bluetongue virus outbreak, which has been somewhat underreported. The restricted zone for that virus outbreak now runs to 26 counties in England, so it is spreading quite quickly. What assessment have the Government made of the impact on farmers who cannot move their animals easily within that restricted zone? What are the Government doing to help them?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
We are very aware of the impacts on farmers and the issues around restricted zones. With the weather changing and us now moving into winter, and with this being a midge-transported disease, cases are coming down. We are now looking at the issue of midges that can overwinter and therefore spread the disease next year, without it having to be blown over from the continent. Whether that means we want to keep the restricted zones in place is something we are currently looking at and considering carefully.