The Landfill (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Landfill Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 (“the Landfill Regulations”) which implement in part, Council Directive 99/31/EC on the landfill of waste in Northern Ireland.

Regulation 3 substitutes the definition of operator in the Landfill Regulations to include:-

1.  “operator” within the meaning assigned to it by Regulation 2(2) and (3) of the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003;

2.  a person who held a disposal licence in respect of a landfill immediately prior to its cancellation or revocation in the period beginning on 16^th July 2001 and ending on 5^th January 2004 (“the specified period”);

3.  a council which rescinded a resolution in respect of a landfill in the specified period under Article 13(4)(a) of the Pollution Control and Local Government (Northern Ireland) Order 1978; and

4.  a person who held a waste management licence or site licence in respect of a landfill in the specified period.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 4(d) of the Landfill Regulations to provide that the Landfill Regulations do not apply to landfills which finally ceased to accept waste for disposal prior to 16^th July 2001.

Regulation 5 amends regulation 15 of the Landfill Regulations (closure and after-care procedures for landfills) and introduces the following:-

1.  a new regulation 15A making provisions for the Chief Inspector to serve a compliance notice, which shall include closure and after-care requirements, on the operators of landfills which are captured by the amended definition of “operator”. It shall be an offence to fail to comply with a notice served under regulation 15A.

2.  a new regulation 15B which sets out an operator’s rights of appeal with respect to compliance notices, and any such appeal shall be heard by the Planning Appeals Commission.

3.  a new regulation 15C making provision for the Chief Inspector to take steps to remove the risk of pollution and to recover the costs of taking those steps from the operator.

4.  a new regulations 15D which sets out the entry, examination and investigation powers of inspectors.

Regulation 6, 7 and 8 amend the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 to make it an offence to fail to comply with the requirement of a compliance notice, including the option of taking proceedings to the High Court.

A copy of the partial Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Regulations, attached as part of the consultation document, may be found on the DOE websitewww.doeni.gov.uk/