EA issues further Covid-19 regulation relaxations
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ShareThe Environment Agency (EA) has released two new Covid-19 Regulatory Position Statements (RPS) removing the need for physical signatures on waste transfer documentation and removing penalties for packaging producers that were unable to register with a compliance scheme during the crisis.
The Covid-19 outbreak has been causing disruption in the waste and recycling sector, though local authorities and commercial operators have been working hard to continue to provide vital services during the crisis having been deemed an essential industry by the government.
RPS C8 means that operators do not have to sign and hand over paper copies of waste transfer and consignment notes in person, which is the normal regulatory position unless operators are registered as using an electronic system.
The RPS provides certain conditions for the relaxation of its rules. Rather than a signature on the waste transfer note or consignment note, the responsible person should provide their full name, date of birth and contact number, providing all the information and data normally provided in a waste transfer note without physically handing over the document.
For each waste transfer, the completed paper copy must be sent or received as normal, without the signature, no later than 10 calendar days after the waste transfer has taken place, keeping accurate records of all waste transferred during the period the RPS is in use.
The RPS will last until 30 June 2020, unless the EA decides to extend it, after which time normal requirements will apply.
The RPS has been welcomed by the Environmental Services Association (ESA), which represents the UK’s largest waste management companies, though Jacob Hayler, ESA Executive Director, questioned the timing of its introduction. He said: “This position statement is a common sense approach that will be welcomed by the sector, although it has perhaps taken a little longer to arrive than was desirable, bearing in mind that strict social-distancing regulations have been in place for a month now.”
RPS C9 provides leeway to obligated packaging producers that failed to register with a compliance scheme before 7 April 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Producers will avoid a £110 late registration fee charge and a £220 re-submission fee charge if they can prove that it was not ‘reasonably practicable’ to register before the 7 April deadline or provide accurate or complete information with their application because of the pandemic.
Packaging producers must register as soon as ‘reasonably practicable’ and by 7 July, detailing how Covid-19 prevented them from doing so before 7 April, providing information proving they have taken appropriate measures to supply as complete and accurate information as possible. These documents must then be kept for 12 months and should be available to the EA on request.
The latest RPS join four others published by the EA:
- RPS C2 temporarily relaxes the limits on waste storage
- RPS C4 allows municipal incinerators to accept Covid-19 infectious waste
- RPS C5 allows healthcare workers to dispose of personal protective equipment (PPE) through householders' general waste when caring for patients in their homes
- RPS C7 allows a greater degree of flexibility around the monitoring of emissions
Hayler added: “We are grateful to the Agency, and relevant Government Departments, for enacting the measures we have asked for to protect operators and ease the burden of some regulatory activities during a time of unprecedented pressure. It is important to stress that these are temporary relaxations to avoid unfairly penalising legitimate operators trying to safely carry out vital services, and not a license to relax important environmental protections in the long term.”
