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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what emergency plans are in place to deal with the potential stockpiles of waste which would no longer have valid export licences if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

There is a process in place to ensure the continuity of notified waste shipments in the case of a no-deal scenario, which was set out by the European Commission in November last year. We have received agreement to roll over 98% of existing consents for waste exports to the EU from the UK - agreeing 545 out of the 556 current approvals. This means that 99.7% of the waste which requires consent has a valid export licence from 30 March this year if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

We expect to reach agreement on the outstanding approvals and we are confident that leaving the EU without a deal would not have a significant impact on the continued export of the UK’s notified waste shipments that have already been agreed.

In December last year, the Environment Agency began assessing waste disposal capacity particularly in the south east of England, in case waste that cannot be exported should need to be disposed of. Staff across the Environment Agency are engaging with operators to identify where issues, including stockpiling, may arise. The Environment Agency is ready to respond to requests from industry for additional storage of waste and will process any such requests as promptly as it can.