Government unveils overhaul of environmental regulations
The Government is to repeal 52 environmental regulations and merge or simplify 132 others after businesses said the current framework was overly-complex, inconsistent and difficult to comply with.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said a further 70 regulations would be left untouched following the review undertaken as part of the Red Tape Challenge.
Ministers claimed that the changes would provide more than £1bn in savings for businesses over five years and make the regulations easier to follow.
The Government also said that enforcement would be targeted at companies that are not abiding by the rules.
Under the proposals Defra will:
- Look to free businesses from having to fill in unnecessary waste transfer notes by allowing them to use other forms of evidence such as invoices. An electronic recording system will be introduced from January 2014;
- Work with the European Commission to “ensure better clarity and transparency on cost sharing” under the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH);
- Introduce revised guidance on the cleaning up of contaminated land. Issued for consultation last month, this is intended to concentrate efforts on the sites where action is genuinely needed;
- Change the implementation of REACH to allow second hand articles containing asbestos to be sold, provided that the seller can show that people’s health will be properly protected;
- Ease the burden on small businesses of producer responsibility obligations, for example by exempting more small portable battery producers from this requirement;
- Simplify the guidance on recording hazardous waste disposal, which is currently seen by businesses as over complicated and difficult to follow;
- Extend the flexibility for firms to decide the sequencing of planning and environmental permitting applications.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will also consult on changing the existing regulations relating to the collection, treatment, recovery and recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment through producer compliance schemes.
This will include an option for a new central allocation system for local authority sites to help the schemes fully align collections with their members’ obligations.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman insisted that the changes did not mean that environmental protection was being watered down.
She said: “I want to be very clear that this is not about rolling back environmental safeguards, nor is it just about cutting regulation to stimulate growth.
“We’ve always said that we were going to keep the vitally important protection our environment needs. This was about getting better rules, not weaker ones.”
Defra will report to Ministers by September about rationalising guidance and by the autumn about the scope for rationalisation of data sets.
“Changes that can be easily introduced will be taken forward as soon as possible,” it said.
The proposals can be downloaded here.
