NHS: Dangerous Waste and Body Parts Disposal

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Wednesday 10th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I thank my noble friend for her question. I will certainly take up the issue of waste disposal in general with my colleagues in Defra who, as she knows, are responsible for it. On the specific question of incineration capacity, Defra calculated that in 2017 there was a total of more than 30,000 tonnes of spare capacity for clinical and hazardous waste incineration. That was across a year, but we know that the NHS has identified more than 2,000 tonnes of incineration capacity this month. So the capacity is there; the point is that it should be used to get rid of the stockpile. As I said, the contracts are now in place to ensure a continued flow of service to NHS trusts.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I do not understand the timescales in this. According to the Statement, the Environment Agency notified the Government on 31 July. Why did it take until October for NHS Improvement to write to the company expressing its concerns? As for reporting to Parliament, we met for two weeks in September. Why did Ministers not come to the House during that period? The Minister seems to be saying that commercial secrecy trumps public accountability.

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I am absolutely not saying that. To go through the timescale, the noble Lord is quite right that 31 July was the escalation from the Environment Agency to Defra, which then contacted the Department of Health and Social Care. Ministers were informed on 8 August, by which point a huge amount of effort had gone in not only to analyse the problem but to put in place contingency plans. A final enforcement notice for the Normanton site was issued by the Environment Agency with a need to comply by 25 September, which fell after the two-week Sitting that we had in September. In the meantime, plans were put in place—the Secretary of State chaired a cross-government meeting—and on 3 October the partial suspension was put in place. That is what triggered the termination of contracts by NHS trusts and their replacement by a new contract with Mitie.