Chamber and committees

The guidance on storage standards was issued to local authorities and industry on 6 December. That for treatment is being finalised following consultation and will issue shortly.

The currently available options are high-temperature incineration within the United Kingdom and export to European Union states with suitable treatment facilities. However, we are hopeful that suitable treatment facilities will soon become available within the UK.

This is a matter for the appropriate agency under the packaging waste regulations (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency or the Environment Agency). However, I understand that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency intends to publish information on compliance rates in due course as part of its next annual monitoring strategy for the packaging recovery scheme.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 allow a producer to join a compliance scheme which will meet the producer's recovery and recycling obligations on its behalf. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Environment Agency have produced guidance on various aspects of the regulations, including statutory guidance on evidence of compliance. The accreditation system established in accordance with the guidance helps producers and compliance schemes to demonstrate compliance by obtaining Packaging Waste Recovery Notes from agency-accredited reprocessors. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has also provided a range of training courses on various aspects of the regulations for producers and compliance scheme members.

The Directive on Packaging Waste Directive has been implemented in Great Britain by the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (as amended).The regulations require businesses which manufacture or use packaging materials or products, to recover and recycle certain volumes of packaging waste, calculated by the amount of packaging handled by the business. Such businesses can reduce their recovery obligation by using less packaging and by re-using packaging whenever possible. The more re-usable packaging a company uses, the less is its packaging recovery obligation and the lower are its consequent compliance costs.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2000 set a recovery target of 56% and a recycling target of 18% for 2001 and beyond. These targets apply to companies with a turnover of over £2 million and which produce or use more than 50 tonnes of packaging materials or products per year. The Executive and UK Government have consulted on increasing these targets for 2002 and beyond and are currently considering what the appropriate level should be.

Article 5 of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive makes a packaging-reuse option available to member states which the United Kingdom has not expressly adopted. However, companies with a packaging recovery obligation under The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 can reduce their obligation, and the cost of their compliance, by using re-usable forms of packaging. This therefore offers an encouragement to businesses, to operate re-use systems.

Following further appraisal of successful Rural Stewardship Scheme applications, the total value of plans for those who have been offered entry to the Scheme is £17 million over five years.Details of the anticipated spend for the Rural Stewardship Scheme in the current financial year, broken down by Environment and Rural Affairs Department Area and local offices are given in the following table:

Area Office	Financial Year 2001-02 Anticipated Spend
Ayr	£225,511
Benbecula	£260
Dumfries	£47,642
Dundee	£7,405
Galashiels	£65,551
Grampian	£428,238
Hamilton	£58,486
Inverness	£330,708
Kirkwall	£86,257
Lairg	£14,910
Lerwick	£825
Oban	£100,834
Perth	£36,794
Portree	£1866
Stirling	£73,588
Stornoway	£18,583
Thurso	£157,047

Further to the answer to questions S1W-22360 and S1W-22361 on 8 February 2002, the difference in figures showing the allocations made is because the response to question S1W-22360 details the anticipated spend in one financial year while the response to question S1W-22361 sets out the allocation of funds over five financial years in respect of the applications of those who have been offered an agreement to join the scheme.It is not possible to provide a definitive statement of what will be spent this year because not all businesses to which an agreement has been offered have yet accepted, and because within the five year period of the agreement scheme participants have some discretion about when to carry out certain capital works and when to claim reimbursement. Estimates of spending on Rural Stewardship Scheme (RSS) measures in any particular financial year are therefore subject to variation. A geographical division of anticipated spending on RSS measures in the current financial year, based on revised forecasts, is provided in the response to question S1W-23014 today.

No funding has been allocated to hedge planting or restoration of stone dykes because funding in full all applications, including capital measures which are not essential to conservation management, would have meant that only a small proportion of those who applied to join the Rural Stewardship Scheme in 2001 would have received funding.