Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to rescind the T8 exemptions on the mechanical treatment of end-of-life tyres as part of her upcoming reforms of waste handling regulations.

The Government published its plans to reform the waste exemptions regime on 6 February and legislation will be laid before Parliament to implement the changes. The T8 exemption will be removed from the waste exemptions regime due to the negative impacts of illegal activity on legitimate businesses and associated risk to the environment and human health.

No assessment has been made of the implications for our policies of the removal of T8 exemptions on the mechanical treatment of end-of-life tyres by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency removed the T8 exemption in Scotland in 2016. Our plans for the reform of the waste exemptions regime detail that the T8 exemption will now also be removed in England and Wales.

The 2018 consultation on proposals to tackle crime and poor performance in the waste sector stated that there were 1,404 T8 exemptions registered in England and Wales. As of September 2022 there were 1,149 T8 exemptions registered in England. We do not hold information on what proportion of recycling companies hold a T8 exemption.