And, the report, Environment Agency: Protecting the public from waste, finds that the Agency could improve its detection of illegal waste activities. The NAO states: “The Agency could, however, provide more effective and efficient regulation by better targeting of its inspections of licensed waste sites, and making greater use of its enforcement powers to deal with persistent offenders.”
Enforcement
The NAO found that the Agency does not always escalate the enforcement action it can take where a licensed waste operator is guilty of multiple, but individually minor, breaches of its licence. “The Agency needs to do deal more effectively with operators that persistently fail to comply with their licences.”
The report highlights the changes that have been seen within the waste industry and notes Environmental Services Association (ESA) data on the trend towards larger waste companies.
The NAO says that many of the large waste management companies have been prosecuted in recent years, but that the growth of the companies into larger and better capitalised businesses can “create the potential for better standards”.
Support
ESA director of policy Mike Walker commented: “ESA has for argued for some time that the Environment Agency could make better use of resources by using operators’ own management systems more effectively, and we support the NAO’s recommendation that the Agency should pursue this further.” And he condoned the recommendation that the Agency reduce time taken to deal with waste management applications.
The NAO also tells the agency to work with the DTI and DEFRA to propose changes in the law to achieve more secure financial provision for waste sites where operators go into liquidation or disclaim the waste licence.
The Agency is to publish a series of assessments of each waste site it regulates, starting in April 2003.
Register for free to comment