« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
SCHEDULE 3
1. The Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 ( WMLR) provide a regulatory framework for the treatment, keeping or disposal of "controlled waste" - which term covers all materials which are stated to be waste by the European Waste Framework Directive 1.
2. Schedule 3 to the WMLR lists a range of activities which are benign to the environment and human health, and which are useful and worthy of encouragement. Activities listed in this Schedule benefit from what is called an "exemption", which means that they do not have to fulfil all the requirements necessary to obtain a full waste management licence. Provision for such exemptions is made in the Waste Framework Directive.
3. This does not mean these activities are uncontrolled. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency ( SEPA) may take action where it believes an exemption is being abused. Under the WMLRSEPA must carry out its functions with the objective of avoiding danger to human health or to the environment. The qualifications for gaining an exemption are not uniform. Some require the provision of detailed documentation and the following of statutory procedures. Furthermore, though some exemptions are available free of charge, in other cases a fee for the exemption is payable to SEPA - particularly where SEPA has to revise technical documentation, and carry out detailed inspections.
4. The benefit to practitioners of an exemption, however, is that in all cases the regulatory requirements and the fees payable are less than those which would apply if they had to obtain a full waste management licence.
5. Consequently the exemptions listed in Schedule 3 have been kept under constant review, from at least two important perspectives. On the one hand waste operators have been keen to see their activities included among those which can be exempted, and on the other there has been a necessity to ensure that potentially harmful activities should not escape proper controls.
6. These circumstances have resulted in Schedule 3 being amended almost a dozen times, often quite substantially. Furthermore, though the WMLR was originally a GB-wide documentation, different paces of change and different policy requirements have resulted in the version of the WMLR in force in Scotland diverging from that in force in England & Wales. An example of a particular pressure in Scotland has been concern at the misuse of exemptions for organic wastes, which resulted in inquiries by two committees of the Scottish Parliament. The response to these changes led to significant amendments to Schedule 3 well in advance of slightly different changes in England & Wales.
7. There are also exemptions which are now out of date, in that there is no possibility of an activity covered by them taking place. These will be considered in detail later in this paper.
8. The Scottish Executive therefore feels that a clear statement of the current situation regarding exemptions in Scotland, such as would be provided by a formal codification of Schedule 3, would be welcomed by practitioners and regulators alike.
« Previous | Contents | Next »