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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to reduce the timeframe for the authorisation of new electric vehicle battery recycling facilities.

Environmental permits enable Government missions on economic growth, green innovation and net zero. To protect the environment and the public, all environmental permits require appropriate assessment to prevent harm.

All environmental permitting is subject to statutory timeframes. Defra and the Environment Agency are constantly reviewing and improving Environmental Permitting services to make them efficient and reactive to customer needs. The Environment Agency will consider prioritising applications, if they meet specific criteria that include supporting economic growth or are for nationally significant infrastructure projects.

The Environment Agency encourages applicants to contact them as early as possible in any project plans and take up pre application advice (Get advice before you apply for an environmental permit), particularly for complex permits for new and novel technologies such as vehicle battery recycling facilities.