WRAP in charity bid as Scotland leaves

Scottish resource efficiency body Zero Waste Scotland is to become wholly independent from the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) from June 2014, it has been revealed today (February 3).

And, WRAP, with an overall loss of funding, is now bracing itself for possible job cuts and some restructuring as it also looks to set itself up as a charity. But, the organisation is still set to receive significant support from Defra in the future and is not seen as having its budgets cut quite as much as some other government-linked bodies. Keep Britain Tidy, for example, is having its budget cut by 90% to 500,000.

The Scottish Government is currently WRAP’s biggest funder, putting in 26 million a year with WRAP running the Zero Waste Scotland programme. This compares to 15.5 million to be provided to the organisation by Defra for 2015/16.

Commenting on the organisations seeking of charitable status, a WRAP spokesman said: WRAP is working to diversify its funding base as part of its corporate strategy to build on its USP to bring different groups together and drive real change.

The WRAP Board has agreed we should pursue the option of WRAP converting to charitable status which would give us access to other sources of funding. That process is in its early stages.

Jobs

The spokesman added that it would be too early to establish what the implication for jobs at the organisation would be following the departure of Zero Waste Scotland from WRAPs governance.

He said: It is too early to say what the jobs implications will be. We need to develop a transition plan for Zero Waste Scotland. Once we have done that, we will need to review our cost base again to understand the implications of transition. The majority of Scottish Government funding is already spent in practice by the team based in Stirling so there will be limited impact on other WRAP projects.

Details of Zero Waste Scotlands break away from WRAP were outlined in a letter to stakeholders from the Scottish Governments head of environment quality George Burgess today.

Subsidiary

In his letter, Mr Burgess said that Zero Waste Scotland which was formally set up as a subsidiary company of WRAP in 2010 would be focussed on creating the conditions for Scotland to benefit from a more circular economy.

He wrote: To support the next stages in our work, we are now looking to integrate the work of Zero Waste Scotland more closely with the wider Scottish policy landscape, our Scottish delivery partners and the Scottish business and research communities.

In close consultation with WRAP, we have examined a number of options for realigning the governance and management of Zero Waste Scotland to better achieve these outcomes.

We have jointly concluded that the best option is to transition Zero Waste Scotland from a subsidiary company of WRAP operating under the WRAP board, to an organisation operating under its own governance structure. With our support, WRAP and Zero Waste Scotland will now work to put these arrangements into place from June 30.

Mr Burgess added that he recognised the valuable contribution that WRAPs expertise, international networks and that both organisations will continue to work in partnership will continue.

Zero Waste Scotland has been a key player in the development of Scotlands newly established waste regulations, which include strict rules on how businesses present their waste for collection.