Bioeconomy: S&T Committee Report

Baroness Williams of Trafford Excerpts

Wednesday 10th December 2014 Grand Committee

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to respond to this debate on behalf of the Government. I am grateful to the noble Lords on the Science and Technology Select Committee for their very important report, Waste or Resource? Stimulating a Bioeconomy, under the very able chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Krebs. I extend my good wishes to my noble friend Lord Selborne in his future role. I am sure that he will do more than half as good a job. In fact, he and the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, seem to be at one in their approach. I also thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate. It has been a bit of an education for me as well.

The report recognised the important role played by government departments in incentivising the use of high-value assets of carbon-containing wastes, discouraging landfill—or, as the noble Lord, Lord Young, said, utilising landfill—and developing and commercialising new technologies to enable economic opportunities.

The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, made some very important points, including one about the ministerial champion role. The report recommended that the Government should appoint a champion for the waste economy and that the appointment should be given to a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Minister. As the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, told us, there has been a development in this ministerial champion role. My right honourable friend in the other place, Matthew Hancock, BIS Minister of State for Business and Enterprise and also Minister for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, will now share this responsibility with Dan Rogerson, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Water, Forestry, Rural Affairs and Resource Management at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This change allows for the respective policy ownership for the economic development and for waste to be combined on this important issue. This change is a welcome development which reinforces the partnership necessary for government to deliver a truly cross-Whitehall vision and action plan for developing a high-value bioeconomy with waste as an initial focus. The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, made an important point about ensuring that, with two people sharing a role, the agenda does not fall between the cracks. I assure him that the two departments are already working very closely on this agenda.

The noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, commented on regulation and how it will be a changing picture as time goes on. The Government are encouraging industry and the Environment Agency to consider how new high-value processes can be allowed to move up the waste hierarchy. Government can facilitate this dialogue with the Environment Agency to change this over time.

Several noble Lords asked how the Government can manage and steer the agenda cross-departmentally over time. This work is being taken forward through a co-ordinated cross-government working group to facilitate the joined-up approach needed to succeed in the task. In fact, this is already under way. The working group is reporting progress to the Defra-chaired Resource Steering Group and to the Circular Economy Task Force. The working group is being advised and steered by the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum. These existing boards will ensure co-ordinated development of this agenda across Whitehall, industry and stakeholders.

Other key stakeholders, including WRAP—the Waste and Resources Action Programme—are contributing as well. The primary responsibilities for the two cross-Whitehall bioeconomy champions are to ensure the production of a long-term plan or road map with at least a 15-year horizon, to support the development of a growing bioeconomy looking at waste as a feedstock. The road map is being developed now and I am pleased to inform my noble friend Lord Dixon-Smith that it should be delivered by March 2015.

The noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, and my noble friend Lady Sharp talked about looking at international best practice. The road map planning will include a review of international best practice in bioeconomy strategies, including waste. The noble Lord, Lord Young, made the very sensible point about looking at best practice within this country. That certainly can be looked at. The picture differs across local authorities but there are examples of very good practice.

The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, and other noble Lords made points about research funding. I can confirm that a range of funding is in place across the research council and Innovate UK, including the Catalyst Fund for major integrated research and development projects. The second phase of catalyst funding was recently announced, which extended it by £40 million; the noble Lord made that point. The High Value Manufacturing Catapult will play a vital role in bringing technologies in this space through to commercial reality. Some £60 million of additional core funding was secured for this resource at the Autumn Statement, and the Centre for Process Innovation—a key part of this catapult—received an additional £28 million to extend its facilities.

The noble Earl, Lord Selborne, the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, and other noble Lords made points about information on waste. The bioeconomy road map will look at this issue and take account of what is known about the location, volumes and trends in waste arisings. I appreciate that this is a complex area and it is difficult to get those figures at this time, but the road map will be looking at it.

A lot of comments were made about local authorities. As a local authority leader, I totally appreciate the fact that there is a varied picture in terms of what local authorities collect, their different contracting arrangements, the fact that those arrangements are completely out of kilter, and the fact that some local authorities collect food waste and others do not. I am pleased to say that the local authority of which I was leader collects it. However, the Government continue to support the sharing of best practice and joint procurement across local authorities to help councils reduce costs and drive up quality and value. I will make the point about, for example, Greater Manchester and the devolution of powers to the whole conurbation. I hope, in time, to see some harmonisation of waste collection. Perhaps that might be in that authority’s consideration as it drives down costs and drives up value for money. There is one waste authority—the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority—but different methods of collection across the local authorities in the area.

The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, said that municipal waste accounts for only 13% of total waste. I thought that it was actually 15% but it is even more depressing if the figure is 13%. The use of waste products will certainly help to improve the efficiency of use of waste materials. She also mentioned incineration, which in a local authority context I have found to be a political hot potato. I was asked about the consultation on refuse-derived fuels. I know that the responses are out and were published a week ago, and the Government will publish their response to those responses in due course. The noble Lord, Lord Young, asked why the Government supported the frequent collection of waste. I assume that waste includes recyclable waste as well as other waste; we all have our various bins collected on different weeks. I, like him, can manage to fit my non-recyclable waste in a black bin bag over two weeks. Certainly, the amount of non-recyclable waste in local authorities is getting less but I am making the assumption—I will correct that in a letter if I am wrong—that there is more recyclable waste. That is the point about frequent collection.

The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, referred to a report entitled Sweating our Assets—Productivity and Efficiency Across the UK Economy, and how it has been received by the Government. It highlights the need to increase the productivity and resilience of UK businesses through better resource efficiency. With businesses taking the lead, the Government continue to work closely with and support the transition of sectors towards a more circular economy which makes the best use of our materials and resources.

I shall take up some other points made by noble Lords in the debate. My noble friend Lord Selborne raised the issue of subsidies. These will need to be reviewed over time for several reasons, including how they serve their purpose and how the business case for a subsidy may change over time. Something that springs to my mind is, for example, tidal and wave energy, for which the business case is quite poor at the moment, but the technology may improve to the point where it becomes very viable to subsidise it. I know that that is not a waste issue, but it is an example that came to mind. The Government seek to incentivise new developments, but not to distort the landscape. This point was made during the evidence session with representatives from DECC.

My noble friend Lady Sharp mentioned the need for co-ordination in order to unlock progress. The waste strategy will be devolved and managed under the umbrella activity of the Chemistry Growth Partnership, the sector council that is leading the strategy for chemical and chemistry-using industries. She also talked about the need for whole-system development at scale. I can say to her that industry in the north-east is working with local enterprise partnerships to develop plans for the wholesale use of industrial waste gases for biorefining.

My noble friend Lord Dixon-Smith talked about heat from power stations. I can give him a partial response now. Waste heat is being harvested between businesses in clusters. An example is industrial biotech processes which can utilise heat. Local enterprise partnerships have a role to play in encouraging this, and they are doing so on Teesside.

The noble Lord, Lord Young, mentioned a pet interest of mine, which is food waste and how we have a generation of children who will not even smell things that are past their sell-by date. When my children were little, I had a particular interest in yoghurt, which lasts well after the sell-by date. I used to force them to eat the yoghurt and they never came to any harm. The noble Lord also mentioned the capabilities of landfill sites. Again, that will be mentioned in the road map.

I am pleased to hear that by and large noble Lords are pleased with the Government’s response, but I should make the point that much needs to be done. I hope that noble Lords will agree that the summary reports good progress against the actions. I conclude by thanking all noble Lords who have taken part in the debate. I hope that I have not left out any points, but if I have, I will write to noble Lords in due course.