Fallon replaces Prisk as WEEE and ELVs minister

Michael Fallon MP has been named as the minister responsible for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and End-of-Life Vehicle recycling at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Mr Fallon replaces outgoing Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, Mark Prisk, who has held the role since 2010 and has been given a housing brief at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) as part of the governments cabinet reshuffle.

Mr Fallons full portfolio includes overseeing business sectors including low carbon economy, low emission vehicles, electronics, small business, enterprise and access to finance, competitiveness and economic growth, deregulation, regional and local economic development, business support, Olympic legacy, export licensing, Royal Mail, general oversight of Shareholder Executive and its portfolios. He will also be Commons spokesman on Trade and Investment.

The MP for Sevenoaks was originally elected to parliament in 1983 in the Darlington constituency, and joined the government as a Whip, before being given the post of Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and Schools Secretary under John Major, a position he held from 1990-1992.

After losing his seat in Darlington in 1992, Mr Fallon was elected to the Sevenoaks constituency in 1997.

His business background is in social care and education, and he is a former director of nursing homes provider Quality Care Homes plc, nursery operator Just Learning Ltd and Scandinavian health care firm Attendo AB. He is currently a non-executive director of financial intermediary Tullett Prebon, and has not previously worked in the waste sector.

Red Tape

Mr Fallons new role will see him given responsibility for BISs drive to cut red tape for businesses, which will include plans to overhaul the UKs WEEE sector and make the system more transparent for producers of electrical equipment.

And, he will oversee the development of new legislation which brings the UK in line with the European Unions recast of the WEEE Directive. EU Member States have been given a February 14 2014 deadline to comply with the new laws, that will see WEEE recycling targets rise to 65% by 2019 (see letsrecycle.com story).

A consultation on plans to overhaul the WEEE system is due to be launched in early 2013.

ELVs

Mr Fallon will also be responsible for overseeing the UKs efforts to increase its ELV recycling rate beyond the 95% vehicle recovery target set to come into effect by 2015. The UK has yet to meet the current 85% recovery rate for ELVs, but BIS is understood to be in talks with the Environment Agency and the car scrapping industry to agree an approach that would allow vehicle recyclers to meet the 2015 target (see letsrecycle.com story).

The waste and recycling industry is also waiting to find out who will replace the outgoing recycling minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach at Defra, after the minister was promoted to a new ministerial at the Home Office (see letsrecycle.com story).