Chamber and committees

That will depend on exactly how the regulations are drafted, but the intention is to prevent things that could be used from going to incineration or landfill. Whether the regulations will permit export use will have to be considered in consultation.

That is the case. One of the reasons for moving to the mandatory code of practice is to ensure that we have best practice. Interestingly, that is an area in which research has moved on quite a lot in the past few years. Our best evidence on how to separate waste is different from what it was 10 or 15 years ago.

It is interesting that you ask about that. There was a provision on the zoning of waste in the consultation, but we have not carried that forward into the bill. That would have given councils the power to streamline collections so that there was only one collector in a particular area. There was a good deal of feedback, especially from small businesses, that that would not be appropriate. However, a voluntary model for that kind of streamlining could be undertaken.

I see that the convener wants us to move on. I would be happy to take that up with the member separately.

I need to come to officials on that matter.

I will write to the member on the matter.

Sorry—I will write to the committee.

There is certainly on-going dialogue. I myself have had dialogue with the UK Government about the deposit return scheme, wet wipes, single-use vapes and other matters. I come to officials for the dialogue that has been happening at official level.

There is nothing in the bill that says that they must be the same.

I absolutely agree with the member on that. The issue has been highlighted—George Monbiot wrote an essay for The Guardian in which he described how he got his fish a waste-handling licence. That is how easy it is to get a licence, at least down in England.

Here in Scotland, the Resource Management Association Scotland has raised with me the issue of wanting to create a higher bar for waste carriers. We are absolutely looking at that issue, under something called the integrated authorisation framework—have I got that right?

We do not need to make legal provision for that in the bill, but work is under way on the issue because it is—as you rightly highlight—something that we need to do.