UK Offence Report

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

Welsh Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 3238 — creates 3 criminal offences.

3offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
9 December 2003
In force from
1 January 2004
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries
Made under
94/62/EC, State by sections 93, 94 and 95 of the Environment Act 1995

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations amend the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (the “1997 Regulations”), which impose on producers, and, on their behalf, scheme operators, 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 being negotiated at present and is expected to be agreed soon. The targets presently in the 1997 Regulations are not high enough to enable the United Kingdom to increase its rates of recovery and recycling sufficiently to meet the proposed new Directive targets in 2008. These Regulations therefore set interim domestic targets, and recovery and recycling obligations, which reflect the new targets which the United Kingdom is likely to have to meet in 2008. Paragraph 1 of the Schedule makes amendments to regulation 2 of the 1997 Regulations which insert a number of new definitions and amend others. Paragraph 2 introduces a new obligation on scheme operators to take reasonable steps to discharge the recovery and recycling obligations to which scheme members would be subject if they were not members of the scheme. Paragraph 3 makes a number of amendments to Part III of the 1997 Regulations concerning registration, including in particular — a a requirement that application forms for registration must 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 scheme operators, to comply with the operational plans which they are required to have submitted; d alignment of the conditions of registration applying to producers and scheme operators; e a change in the date by which revised operational plans are to be submitted to 31 January in each year; f the introduction of new charges for applications which are submitted late, those which have to be resubmitted, and those which relate to subsidiaries within groups; g a requirement on scheme operators to submit monitoring plans setting out the steps they propose to take to ensure the accuracy of the information received by them from scheme members; h new procedural requirements for obtaining the approval of the National Assembly for Wales to a scheme; i a requirement for annual applications for registration instead of annual renewals; and j requirements relating to the submission of information by scheme members to scheme operators. Paragraph 4 introduces rights of appeal for producers, reprocessors and exporters. Paragraph 5 inserts a new Part IVA into the 1997 Regulations requiring the accreditation of reprocessors and exporters to issue packaging waste recovery notes and packaging waste export recovery notes. Paragraph 6 amends Part V of the 1997 Regulations so as to require additional records and returns to be submitted to the appropriate Agency by producers and scheme operators. Paragraph 7 amends Part VI of the 1997 Regulations so as to ensure that the monitoring obligations which apply to the appropriate Agency include monitoring the new obligations placed on scheme operators, and on accredited reprocessors and exporters; and to increase the scope of the Agency’s power to serve notices requiring the recipients to submit information to the Agency. Paragraph 8 amends Part X of the 1997 Regulations so as to introduce new offences for which scheme operators, scheme members, reprocessors and exporters may be liable. Paragraph 9 makes minor consequential amendments to Schedule 1 to the 1997 Regulations. Paragraph 10 amends Schedule 2 to the 1997 Regulations so as to apply new recovery and recycling targets which reflect the anticipated revisions to the Directive targets. Paragraph 11 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. Paragraph 12 amends the list of recovery operations set out in Schedule 3 to the 1997 Regulations in order to reflect amendments made by Commission Decision 96/350/EEC. Paragraph 13 amends Schedule 4 to the 1997 Regulations so as to amplify the information required to be contained in the operational plans which producers and scheme operators are required to submit to the appropriate Agency. Paragraph 14 amends Schedule 5 to the 1997 Regulations so as to reduce the period within which appeals may be brought from 6 months to 2 months. Paragraph 15 amends Schedule 6 to the 1997 Regulations so as to amplify the information which must be contained in the certificate of compliance required by regulation 23 of the 1997 Regulations. Paragraph 16 amends Schedule 7 to the 1997 Regulations so as to require information in relation to accredited reprocessors and exporters to be placed on the public register . Paragraph 17 amends Schedule 9 to the 1997 Regulations so as to simplify the arrangements for mid-year changes affecting groups of companies who have obligations under the Regulations. Paragraph 18 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. Copies may be obtained from the Environment Division, National Assembly for Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NQ.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

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