WEEE Advisory Body abolished to cut costs

The department for business, innovation and skills has today (July 19) announced the abolition of the WEEE Advisory Body (WAB) as part of an attempt to cut costs by reducing the number of quangos it funds.

The announcement by business secretary Vince Cable removes the most obvious way for figures involved in the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) from both the public and private sector to help steer government policy for the waste stream.

But, with the board's members including representatives from electronics producers, retailers, producer compliance schemes, waste management firms, reprocessors and re-use organisations, members told letsrecycle.com that they hope stakeholders will still be able to feed into policy development in the future through alternative avenues.

And, in a letter sent to stakeholders confirming the abolition, a senior BIS official responsible for WEEE, Mitchell Leimon, said that the department for business, innovation and skills (BIS) would now take “direct leadership” of work on WEEE, working with former WAB members and other stakeholders in a “committee or task group structure”.

In particular, he identified the need to ensure any changes to the UK WEEE system required by the ongoing recast of the WEEE Directive – including a potentially higher WEEE collection target – were introduced with a “minimum of disruption”.

He added: “This work will include identifying gaps in the system, for example increasing the levels of small WEEE separately collected, raising the profile of the role the reuse sector can play in the system (building upon the WAB's work in developing the Reuse PAS 141) and increasing awareness of the options available to business end-users.”

Mr Leimon also stressed BIS would continue to work with other industry forums such as trade associations, the environment agencies and other “special interest groups”, such as the WEEE Scheme Forum.

Quangos

Making today's announcement, Mr Cable said that the WAB would close “in the next year”, as part of moves by the department for BIS that have now seen it identify 17 of its quangos that will either be abolished, merged or have their funding cut off.

“We are absolutely committed to reducing the number and cost of quangos that we no longer need. I have already said that I want to reduce the number of these bodies by a third and we've achieved a lot in a short space of time. This is the latest phase of that work,” he said.

“By bringing these functions back into Government, we make their activities more accountable and can reduce the considerable administrative costs that they place on the taxpayer,” he added.

BIS has said that the WAB and the two other bodies which it earmarked for abolition today – the British Shipbuilders Corporation and the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property – cost £8.62 million a year.

However, with only the WAB's chairman, Peter Calliafas, being paid for his work – he receives £5,000 a year – and all its other members receiving travel expenses only, the contribution towards this total from the WAB's abolition is likely to be small.

A spokesman for BIS explained that there was no more specific date in place for the winding up of the WAB.

Remit

We are operating in unprecedented times and this background context is fully understood and appreciated by me

 
Peter Calliafas, chair, WAB

The WEEE Advisory Body was originally formed in December 2007 – just six months after the UK's system of producer responsibility for WEEE recycling formally kicked in – with a remit to provide independent advice on the implementation of the WEEE Directive in the UK, as well as its role in helping to steer future policy (see letsrecycle.com story).

While its original membership numbered 13, this increased to 21 from January 2010, following 11 new appointments that were announced in December 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Speaking to letsrecycle.com this morning, the board's chairman, Peter Calliafas, said: “We are operating in unprecedented times and this background context is fully understood and appreciated by me. The WAB has a number of important initiatives underway (Reuse PAS 141, IPR and Making the UK Recast Ready) and I am in touch with my colleagues within BIS to ensure a smooth transition of the management of these”

His acknowledgement of the need to cut costs was echoed by one of the members to be appointed late last year, the general manager of WEEE compliance scheme ERP, Scott Butler, who said: “I think a lot of stuff is happening in relation to cost cutting at the moment. If this is one of the areas that savings can be made we have to be respectful of that.

But, he added: “I'd hope to see that experts are still able to feed into policy-making process”, noting that “it's an important part of making regulation and policy”.

Work

During its life, the WAB has been tasked with working on a number of issues, such as data reporting, the current recast of the EU WEEE Directive and business-to-business WEEE.

However, with the UK's WEEE system reported to be working smoothly in the aftermath of last year's judicial review case, and the household WEEE collection rate on an apparent upward trajectory, one industry source questioned just how important a role it would have to play moving forward.

The source said: “The low profile of the body means it hasn't had much impact over the past two years, and it was hard to see this changing in the future.”