The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has today (3 April) laid the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste (Amendment) Regulations 2014 in Parliament.
Updating the 2007 Regulations, the amended Transfrontier Shipment of Waste (TFS) Regulations will ‘contribute to the government’s commitment to improve enforcement and control of the waste exports regime, in particular, to help combat illegal waste exports from the UK’.
According to Defra, the amendments were needed as there were ‘ambiguities‘ in the 2007 Regulations regarding competent authorities (CAs) – the bodies responsible for monitoring import and export shipments from the UK – and it was sometimes ‘impossible for CAs to access key information and intelligence held by HMRC’ and could involve a ‘complex process involving the Secretary of State’.
As such, the department issued a consultation on proposed changes to the regulations last year, and, following industry response, has now laid these amended regulations in Parliament. The new law will take effect from 1 May 2014.
Amended regulation details
Under the updated law, HMRC has ‘legal authority’ to disclose relevant export data to the UK CAs (Environmental Agency, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland and Natural Resources Wales) to help combat illegal waste exports.
However, the detailed arrangements for the disclosure, including the type and frequency of the data disclosed, has yet to be established in a Memorandum of Understanding between Defra, HMRC and the CAs.
The CA responsible for the transit of waste and the shipment of waste in the marine area (responsible for granting import and export permission into or from the UK) has also been amended, transferring powers from the Secretary of State for the Environment to the Environment Agency (EA).
According to Defra, the Secretary of State was only given this power ‘on a temporary basis’, and as such, the law needed to be updated.
The new regulations will also see the Border Force (BF) gain powers to stop and detain suspect containers ‘for up to five days’ (thought to be ‘sufficiently long for competent authorities to carry out preliminary Investigations’) if suspected illegal waste shipment is detected.
Currently, the BF can only detain shipments when specifically ordered to do so by UK CAs, but under the changes, the BF will have the power to detain suspect shipments as ‘they may sometimes identify shipments that CAs may not be aware of through their intelligence’, such as ‘suspicion from a visual perspective and/or with the paperwork accompanying the shipment’.
The expectation is that BF will only detain containers where there is ‘a very strong suspicion that they contain an illegal shipment of waste’, and Defra says that therefore the risk to legitimate business should be ‘minimal’.
The updated TFS Regulations will also see new fees for notifications for imports and exports of waste to/from Northern Ireland (see table below).
Government has also amended the law so that the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is involved with inspections and evidence gathering for offshore installations for the purposes of supporting the UK CAs enforcing export laws.
Defra has said that this is a ‘logical development’ as DECC inspectors visit offshore installations as part of their work, whereas the CAs ‘do not have the resources or experience required to carry out offshore installations inspections’. As such, the amended regulations will see DECC become involved with the inspections and report back to the CAs, who can then ‘take action’.
All 25 respondents to the consultation also supported this development.
Contrastingly, no consultee was able to offer any information in response to Defra’s questions regarding how the amendments would impact the offshore renewable energy sector. And, despite almost half of all respondents being waste management companies or reprocessors, there was no information submitted on how much waste is likely to be exported from the UK offshore renewable energy sector for recycling, treatment or disposal.
| “Notification type | General notification | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 shipments | 6 to 20 shipments | 21 to 100 shipments | 101 to 500 shipments | More than 500 shipments | |
| Shipment from Northern Ireland | £1,090 | £2,025 | £3,050 | £5,940 | £10,785 |
| Shipment to Northern Ireland | £940 | £2,025 | £3,675 | £7,950 | £14,625”. |
Read the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste (Amendment) Regulations 2014 or the responses to the consultation.
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