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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many licences for (a) domestic (b) commercial and (c) industrial waste incineration were (i) granted and (ii) refused in each of the last five years; and for what reasons those licences were refused.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only. Regulation of incinerators in England is split between the Environment Agency (EA) and local authorities. The EA regulates incinerators with a capacity of greater than 3 tonnes per hour for non-hazardous waste and 10 tonnes per day for hazardous waste. Incinerators below this size are regulated by local authorities.

Since the start of 2015 the EA has granted 27 permits for new incinerators which may take in waste arising from domestic, commercial and industrial sources and which can be classed under the following waste types for each year:

The EA also refused one permit in 2016 for a mixed municipal waste incinerator because the operator had failed to demonstrate that the height of its chimney was satisfactory.

While the EA has only refused one incinerator permit application in the last five years, other potentially unsuitable plants have been prevented during that time due to challenges from the EA, either as part of discussions before a formal application was made, or during the assessment process leading to the operator withdrawing their application. However, the EA does not keep records of such events.