The Local Government Association has helped secure amendments to the Localism Bill which it claims will prevent ministers from arbitrarily passing fines for missing EU targets onto local authorities.
The council body, which is part of the Local Government Group, said that the amendments remove proposals made in the original text of Bill for ministers to have sole power to force councils to pay towards fines levied on the UK for missing national targets.
Instead, it said it had secured the introduction of a statutory policy which will outline exactly what conditions will need to be met for fines to be passed on, such as any proposal for a fine to be passed on having to be voted on by both Houses of Parliament.
The original proposals to pass on fines have particular relevance to waste and recycling because the UK is required to comply with a host of EU legislation in the area, such as the Landfill Directive, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, the Batteries Directive and the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive. All of these carry financial penalties for non-compliance.
After the Localism Bill was originally published in December 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story), the Local Government Association warned that the plans to make councils pay for fines relation to policy agreed between the central government and the EU were unfair (see letsrecycle.com story).
The LGA claimed councils bill for paying the fines could run as high as 1 billion at a time when they are facing significantly reduced budgets as a result of the October 2010 government spending review.
Key concessions
But, following what it said was sustained lobbying on its part to address the issue, the LGA this week (September 20) said it secured key concessions which had been tabled as government amendments to the Bill.
It said these included introducing a legally-binding policy outlining exactly what conditions will need to be met for an EU fine to be passed onto a local authority. These conditions include:
- Any proposals to pass on fines having to be voted on by the House of Commons and the House of Lords;
- Ministers not being able to pass on fines to councils in relation to any action that took place before that vote;
- If a council contests a fine, the issue will be ruled on by an independent panel that includes LGA-nominated local government representatives.
Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the LGA, described the amendments as a fantastic result for both local authorities and council tax payers.
The previous system was unfair and unconstitutional and could have seen the government arbitrarily pass its fines onto councils, he said.
The amendments, for which we successfully lobbied, mean any decision to reallocate fines will be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny, with further systems of checks and balances introduced which make the processes demonstrably fairer.
We will continue to fight to ensure councils are not lumped with fines they do not deserve, he added.
Progress
Government amendments to the parts of the bill which relate to EU fines clauses 30 to 34 were submitted on September 14 by peers Baroness Hanham and Earl Atlee, government spokespersons on Communities and Local Government in the upper house.
They did this as part of the line-by-line examination of the bill currently taking place in the House of Lords under the report stage of the legislative process. A further meeting as part of this stage is scheduled for October 10, before the Bill has its third and final reading in the Lords.
Amendments must then be considered by both Houses before it receives Royal Assent.
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