The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (the “1997 Regulations”), which imposed on producers, and, on their behalf, operators of schemes, obligations to recover and recycle specified tonnages of packaging waste, and related obligations, in order to attain the targets in Article 6(1) of Directive 94/62/EC ( the “Directive”) which had to be met in 2001. A revision of the Directive which will set new targets to be met in 2008 is presently being negotiated and is expected to be agreed by the end of 2003. In order to ensure that the absence of targets higher than those presently in the 1997 Regulations does not prejudice the United Kingdom`s ability to increase its rates of recovery and recycling sufficiently to meet the new Directive targets in 2008, these Regulations set interim domestic targets and recovery and recycling obligations which take account of the probable new targets which the United Kingdom is likely to have to meet in 2008.

Regulation 4 makes amendments to regulation 2 of the 1997 Regulations by way of inserting a number of new definitions and amending others.

Regulation 5 introduces a new obligation of operators of schemes to take reasonable steps to discharge the recovery and recycling obligations which the members of the schemes would have had but for their membership of the schemes.

Regulation 6 makes a number of amendments to Part III of the 1997 Regulations concerning registration, including in particular—

(a) a requirement for forms of application for registration to be signed by an approved person;

(b) provision for the appropriate Agency to include additional information requirements within the application form;

(c) requirements for producers above certain turnover and tonnage thresholds and for operators of schemes to comply with the operational plans they are required to have submitted;

(d) alignment of the conditions of registration applying to producers and operators of schemes;

(e) a change in the date by which revised operational plans are to be submitted to 31st January in each year;

(f) the introduction of new charges are as follows—

(i) for each subsidiary within a group of companies, as follows—

• — £180 for each of the first 4 subsidiaries;

• — £90 for the 5th to the 20th subsidiaries;

• — £45 for the 21st and subsequent subsidiaries.

(ii) for late producer or scheme applications for registrations and for those requiring data correction and resubmission, £220 per registration for each occurrence;

(g) a requirement on operators of schemes to submit monitoring plans relating to the steps they propose to take to ensure the accuracy of the information they receive from scheme members;

(h) new procedural requirements for obtaining the approval of the Secretary of State to a scheme;

(i) requirements for annual applications for registration to be made in place of annual renewals of registration; and

(j) requirements relating to the submission of information by scheme members to operators of schemes.

Regulation 7 introduces rights of appeal for producers and for reprocessors and exporters.

Regulation 8 inserts a new Part IVA into the 1997 Regulations in order to require the accreditation of reprocessors and exporters to issue packaging waste recovery notes and packaging waste export recovery notes.

Regulation 9 amends Part V of the 1997 Regulations in order to require additional records and returns to be submitted to the appropriate Agency by producers and scheme operators.

Regulation 10 amends Part VI of the 1997 Regulations in order to ensure that the monitoring obligations which apply to the appropriate Agency include monitoring the new obligations placed on operators of schemes, and accredited reprocessors and exporters; and to increase the scope of the Agency’s power to serve notices on persons requiring the submission of information to the Agency.

Regulation 11 amends Part X of the 1997 Regulations in order to introduce new offences for which operators of schemes, scheme members, reprocessors and exporters may be liable.

Regulation 12 makes minor consequential amendments to Schedule 1 of the 1997 Regulations.

Regulation 13 amends Schedule 2 of the 1997 Regulations in order to apply new recovery and recycling targets reflecting the anticipated revisions to the Directive targets.

Regulation 14 inserts a new Schedule 2A into the 1997 Regulations setting out the conditions of accreditation referred to in the new regulation 21C inserted by regulation 8 of these Regulations.

Regulation 15 amends the list of recovery operations set out in Schedule 3 of the 1997 Regulations in order to reflect amendments made by Commission Decision 96/350/EEC (OJ No L135, 6.6.1996, p. 32).

Regulation 16 amends Schedule 4 of the 1997 Regulations in order to amplify the information required to be contained in the operational plans which producers and operators of schemes are required to submit to the appropriate Agency.

Regulation 17 amends Schedule 5 of the 1997 Regulations in order to make provision for producer, reprocessor and exporter appeals and to reduce the period in which appeals may be made from 6 months to 2 months.

Regulation 18 amends Schedule 6 of the 1997 Regulations in order to amplify the information which must be contained in the certificate of compliance required by regulation 23 of the 1997 Regulations.

Regulation 19 amends Schedule 7 of the 1997 Regulations in order to require information in relation to accredited reprocessors and exporters to be placed on the public register .

Regulation 20 substitutes a new Schedule 8 of the 1997 Regulations in order to simplify the arrangements for mid-year changes affecting groups of companies who have obligations under the Regulations.

Regulation 21 removes Schedule 10 which set out the recovery and recycling obligations of the United Kingdom under the Directive.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in connection with these Regulations. It has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament and copies may be obtained free of charge from the Waste Management Division, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DE (telephone [phone]).