Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average length of time was for the Environment Agency to process a waste permit application from point of first application to final determination in each of the last two years; and what proportion of waste permit applications took longer than six months to process.
The Environment Agency prepares data for reports by Financial Year and this response includes information between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2020.
Cumulatively, over the last two years, 6.3% (166 of 2,639) of waste permit applications took longer than 12 months to determine.
Between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, 6.5% (85 of 1,308) of waste permit applications took longer than 12 months to determine.
Between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, 6.1% (81 of 1,331) of waste permit applications took longer than 12 months to determine.
Cumulatively, over the last two years the average length of time taken to determine a waste permit application is 129 days. This is broken down by reporting year as follows:
Between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019 it was 131 days. Between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020 it was 128 days.
Cumulatively, over the last two years 21.2% (560 of 2,639) of waste permit applications took longer than six months to determine. This is broken down by reporting year as follows.
Between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, 21.9% (287 of 1,308) of waste permit applications took longer than six months to determine.
Between 1 April 2019 and 3 March 2020, 20.5% (273 of 1,331) of waste permit applications took longer than six months to determine.