Defra downplays loss of two senior waste officials

The two officials are head of waste regulation Roy Hathaway and Diana Linskey, who, as deputy director of the review process, has been particularly heavily involved. Last month, during a webinar, she revealed the emerging themes of the review (see letsrecycle.com story).

The pair will take early retirement at the end of March and the move has been linked to Defra having its budget squeezed by £162 million and needing to reduce its spending by 25% by 2014/15 (see letsrecycle.com story).

The departures have prompted concerns from some in the waste sector who claim that it could be damaging to the department to lose such expertise at a crucial time. Initial findings from the waste strategy review are not due to be published until May – two months after they are due to leave (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, Defra claims there will be a smooth transition and the move will have little bearing on the outcome of the process.

A spokesman for the department told letsrecycle.com: “Some senior members of the department are due to leave within the next few months. This will include two senior officials from the department's waste programme, who will be leaving Defra in late March.

“The Government's review of waste policies, which is due to published in May, will be well advanced by then, and we have made arrangements to ensure that there is a smooth transition of work in relation to the departures.”

Concerns

One note of concern over the move came from Andrew Craig, principal policy officer at the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC), who warned that it could potentially damage the “dialogue” between central and local government on waste.

Mr Craig said that both Mr Hathaway and Ms Linskey were highly regarded in the sector and that Ms Linksey would be particularly missed due to her heavy involvement in the waste review process.

He added that she was “intelligent and had a good understanding of the waste sector”, something he feared may not be evident in her successor.

He said: “It is not just to do with calibre of civil servants and local government officers, it is also about intelligence and experience. We have said before about, in government, that you have civil servants come in and after a year or 18 months they have been trained up and start to understand wastes management, but then they are moved to do something else.

“I am sure there are civil servants of very good calibre coming up to follow those that are leaving but they don't have the experience of the waste management industry and local authorities and there is quite a lot of in-built prejudice within government and, dare I say, ignorance about the sector.”

Experience

Roy Hathaway has been responsible for policy on waste regulation and commercial & industrial waste at Defra since May 2006. During his career in Defra and previously in MAFF, he has worked on a wide range of environmental policy issues, including marine pollution, flood defence, and sustainable development.

Diana Linskey became deputy director of waste strategy in 2009, having previously been responsible for marine and coastal issues.

While two senior officials will be leaving, the head of waste policy at Defra, Neil Thornton, is expected to retain his position at the department, alongside other officials working on the waste strategy review such as waste programme manager Andrew Gregory.