The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

Regulation 37

SCHEDULE 9 GROUPS OF COMPANIES

1.  This Schedule applies in relation to a relevant year—

(a) where a holding company and one or more of its subsidiaries, or two or more subsidiary companies of the same holding company (in either case referred to in this Schedule and Schedule 10 as “a group of companies”) each satisfies the provisions of Columns 1 to 3 of Table 1 in Schedule 1 in relation to a class or classes of producer; and

(b) where the aggregate of the turnovers, and the aggregate of the amounts of packaging or packaging materials handled by each such company, are sufficient to satisfy the threshold tests as provided by paragraph 3 of Schedule 1.

2.  Subject to regulation 5, in respect of a year each company referred to in paragraph 1 above is a producer of a class specified in an entry in Column 4 of Table 1 in Schedule 1 if—

(a) in that year and the preceding year the company performs the relevant functions specified in Column 1 of that Table in relation to that entry; and

(b) in the preceding year the company made supplies of the materials or products specified in Column 2 of that Table in relation to that entry of a class specified in Column 3 of that Table in relation to that entry,

and the other provisions of that Schedule, other than paragraph 3, shall also have effect for the purposes of determining to which class of producer such a company belongs.

3.  For the purposes of this Schedule and Schedule 10 “subsidiary” and “holding company” have the same meanings as they have in Article 4 of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986.

4.  Subject to regulation 5, companies who are producers and are in a group of companies shall comply with their producer registration obligations for a relevant year by—

(a) being registered for that year with the Department as required by regulation 6, in which case each company so registered has its own recovery and recycling obligations, certifying obligations, and, where applicable, consumer information obligations; or

(b) the holding company and one or more of the subsidiaries being registered together for that year with the Department, (in this Schedule and Schedule 10 referred to as a “group registration”) in which case paragraph 5 below shall apply.

5.  Where there is a group registration—

(a) the subsidiary companies in the group registration are exempt from complying with their producer responsibility obligations for the relevant year;

(b) the holding company has a producer registration obligation for the relevant year which is an obligation to make the group registration and for this purpose regulations 5 to 11, and Parts I and II of Schedule 3, shall be read as if—

(i) references to the applicant or the producer were references to the holding company;

(ii) references to information to be provided regarding the producer were to information to be provided regarding each company in the group registration; and

(iii) the references in [regulations 7(4)(e) and 9(2) to a fee for producer registration were read as references to a fee for group registration;

(c) the holding company has recovery and recycling obligations and, where applicable, consumer information obligations for the relevant year which are the aggregate of its own obligations in respect of that year, if any, and the obligations which the subsidiary companies in the group registration would have had but for the group registration;

(d) where a subsidiary company in the group registration is a small producer who has elected in the group registration application to follow the allocation method set in paragraphs 7 and 8 of Schedule 2 the obligations of the holding company for this subsidiary shall be determined on this basis provided that the small subsidiary shall follow the allocation method for the minimum of the year of registration and the following two years.

(e) the holding company shall furnish records and returns and provide a certificate of compliance, and references in regulation 21 and Schedule 4—

(i) to a producer shall be read as references to the holding company, and

(ii) to information shall be read as references to information regarding each company in the group registration.

6.  This Schedule is subject to the provisions of Schedule 11.