The accusation was a reference to the alleged reporting of non-packaging wood (such as doors and construction wood) as packaging (pallets) by reprocessors in order to gain revenue from packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs).
Speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group in Westminster yesterday afternoon, Sir John raised the issue of PRN fraud, saying: “People are recording used doors, kitchen doors, as pallets. Clearly there is a substantial amount of leakage or fraud. We've just had meetings with representatives of the wood and plastics industries, but I don't think it just extends to wood and plastic.”
The Environment Agency, which regulates the packaging recovery system in England and Wales, has been working with the regulatory bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland to tackle the problem of PRN fraud. Sir John said that the government has also been working with the Agency after UK compliance schemes raised the issue with Michael Meacher in December 2002 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Government
Sheila McKinley, the head of producer responsibility at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, confirmed that the government is taking the issue of PRN fraud “very seriously”.
Also present at the PSWG meeting yesterday, Mrs McKinley said: “We have had raised with us – as have the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Irish government – that there are, perhaps, not completely straight forward figures concerning the packaging that has been recovered – essentially, allegations of PRN fraud.”
Mrs McKinley said that she was not convinced that the allegations of fraud applied to all materials, but it definitely applied to some.
She explained: “In plastics, it is possible the figures for 2001 show the recycling rate was as much as 20% to 21%, but we've had people saying it would be difficult to get to a recycling rate of 22% by 2008. So there's something going on there.”
Consultation
The government is currently carrying out a consultation into the entire state of producer responsibility in the UK (see letsrecycle.com story), and the Advisory Committee on Packaging is also looking into the issue of PRN fraud prior to the presentation of its report to ministers in April 2003.
But Mrs McKinley told MPs and figures from the industry in the PSWG: “I don't want to pre-empt anything, but the sooner we can hit this in the head the better.”
It is thought that the government is likely to announce some kind of “fact-finding” exercise in the near future, possibly involving the wood sector since the tonnages involved are more significant. There are also strong indications that DEFRA may decide to change the way in which data is handled.
Compliance schemes
Sir John Harman also talked about compliance schemes and told the PSWG that he would like to see the Environment Agency given more powers to keep compliance schemes in line.
Sir John said: “We would like to see a wider range of powers over compliance schemes – not to be more draconian, but the only measure we have is with deregistration, and we all know what happened when that came up.”
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