Mr Rogerson was a late addition to the conference bill, delivering a key note speech which touched on the European Commission’s circular economy proposals, action on waste crime and the MRF code of practice.
During a question and answer session following the address, the minister was invited by third sector recycling body Untapped Resource to visit the organisation’s operations in Mansfield, and in response he appeared uncertain as to what his future in office may be.
The minister said: “If I am near you and I can fit it in my diary in the time that I have left to me as a minister. That could be days as a minister or it could be until the General Election.”
One observer commented that this reflects the belief that the Conservatives and Lib Dems will informally split off from one another at the end of the year, ahead of campaigning for the election. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is also expected to be carrying out a reshuffle among the Lib Dem front bench following the party’s conference in Glasgow next month.
In his speech, Mr Rogerson, the MP for North Cornwall who took over the waste brief within Defra from Tory Peer Lord de Mauley in October 2013, also suggested that he will continue his work on waste at a party level, in the build up to the election in May 2015.
“Standing here as a Liberal Democrat, there are things I have picked up which will feed into where we go as a party in the General Election.”
Policy
But, Mr Rogerson’s remarks will be of little comfort for those hoping to see government become more involved with waste policy, especially following comments this week from Waste & Resources Action Programme chief executive Liz Goodwin suggesting that little is likely to change until after the next election (see letsrecycle.com story).
The minister did hint that he is keen to continue a dialogue with the waste industry, in particular around the European Commission’s circular economy policy package, which was adopted in July (see letsrecycle.com story) and which will form the basis for discussions over future EU waste policy.
He said: “We agree on the need to support future actions to reduce production and consumption impacts to improve use of natural resources and reduce negative impacts we have seen on eco systems.
“But, we ought to make sure that the Commission proposals are developed with Member States that they allow flexibility and to ensure that the costs are justified by the expected impacts.”
In his speech Mr Rogerson also commented that he was ‘confident’ councils would be prepared for the January 2015 deadline to put in place separate collections of recyclables where it is technically, economically and environmentally practicable (TEEP) for them to do so, as set out under the revised Waste Framework Directive, but acknowledged that there is ‘work to do’ to meet the 50% by 2020 household waste recycling target. For more extracts from Mr Rogerson’s speech, see the video above.
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