New publications this month:

HM TREASURY

Autumn Statement 2022

The autumn statement took place on 17 November 2022. Financial announcements relevant to the environment are summarised below.

Climate change levy

The autumn statement announced that the spring 2023 Finance Bill will set rates of the climate change levy in 2024/25 as below. The current (2022/23) and 2023/24 rates are presented below for comparison.

Carbon Price Support (CPS) rate of climate change levy

The £18 per equivalent tonne of carbon dioxide rate of CPS will be retained until at least 31 March 2025.

Impacts on the Energy Prices Act 2022

• Non-domestic properties: Energy Bill Relief Scheme

A consultation has been launched on support for non-domestic energy consumers after 31 March 2023. The level of support is expected to be significantly lower than at present.
 

• Domestic Properties: Energy Price Guarantee

From 1 April 2023 the Energy Price Guarantee will continue with a higher cap than at present. This will mean that a typical domestic property in Great Britain will pay £3,000 per annum, up from the current guarantee level of £2,500. The £3,000 level will continue until 31 March 2024.

Households heating their homes with alternative fuels, such as heating oil, coal, biomass or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will receive increased support payments. This will apply to all households in Northern Ireland.

A planned consultation on the Energy Price Guarantee after April 2023 will consider changes to the scheme to cap state support on households that use very large volumes of energy.

Energy Efficiency Taskforce

The autumn statement announced a funding package to drive energy efficiency improvements for homes, businesses and the public sector.

Energy Profits Levy

From 1 January 2023 the energy profits levy rate will increase to 35%. This change was included in the Finance Bill 2022.

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) on Electric Vehicles

VED will become payable on electric cars, vans and motorcycles from 1 April 2025. This change is included in the Finance Bill 2022.

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS)

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels: joint declaration from energy importers and exporters

The UK signed up to this joint declaration on 11 November 222 at COP27.

DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (DEFRA)

UK REACH: extending submission deadlines for transitional registrations: Consultation response

Defra has confirmed that registration submission deadlines under UK REACH for chemicals previously registered under EU REACH will be extended by three-years. These will apply as follows:

These changes will be implemented by forthcoming legislation.

Clean air zones

Information has been added on the Tyneside clear air zone, which will operate from 30 January 2023.

DEFRA AND ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Packaging waste: prepare for extended producer responsibility

Clarity improvements have been made, including when small and large organisations will need to register with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme operator.

How to collect your packaging data for extended producer responsibility

The EPR will require small and large organisations to collect data on the packaging they handle and supply from This guidance explains which information must be collected and reported.

Qualifications to service equipment containing ozone-depleting substances

This guidance now reflects that CITB qualifications for work with hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), a form of ozone-depleting substance, are no longer issued or valid.

Environmental Permitting Guidance

Control and monitor emissions for your environmental permit

Guidance was added on writing and maintaining pest management plans.

Waste operations and A1 installations: carrying out research or trials

This new guidance provides instructions on how new operating models and technologies may be trialled at facilities regulated under the environmental permitting regime.

Monitoring stack emissions: techniques and standards for periodic monitoring

Updated monitoring standards concern bioaerosols, carbon dioxide, hydrogen fluoride and nitric acid vapour.

MCERTS personnel competency standard: manual stack emissions monitoring

A new section concerns personnel undertaking offshore work in the oil and gas industry.

Deposit for recovery operators: environmental permits

This series of documents now includes sections on landfill remediation and the recovery of hazardous waste on land.

Post-combustion carbon dioxide capture: best available techniques (BAT)

This BAT document has been updated to reflect that the Environment Agency no longer requires climate change adaptation to be considered as part of the permit application process.

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Regulatory Position Statements (RPSs)

The following RPSs were published or updated during November 2022:

• Using back up flares at exempt anaerobic digestion plants: RPS 120
• Operating a schedule 25B, tranche B specified generator for research and development: RPS 220
• Temporary storage of recyclable waste at collection points by or for charities: RPS 239
• Using wetlands to improve treated effluent discharge: RPS 260
• Storing food waste: RPS 269

MARITIME AND COASTGUARD AGENCY (MCA)

MGN 632 (M+F) Amendment 1 The merchant shipping (prevention of pollution by garbage from ships) regulations 2020

This Marine Guidance Note was updated in November 2022.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Towards an Industry for Green Heat: heat in buildings supply chains delivery plan

This plan document sets out actions the Scottish Government is taking to support the growth of the green heat industry.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND RURAL AFFAIRS (DAERA)

2023 ban on foams which contain the F-gas hydrofluorocarbons (“HFCs”) with a Global Warming Potential (“GWP”) of 150 or over

Guidance is provided on this ban, which will apply from 1 January 2023.

Skip company in Lancashire has waste permit withdrawn

The Environment Agency has withdrawn the waste permit for A1 Supa Skips Ltd’s site in the Lune industrial Estate, Lancaster. The permit was withdrawn to protect the environment from harm.

Waste operators are required to obtain permits authorising the intended waste management activities. These permits apply conditions to protect the environment and human health, which must be met during the lifespan of the waste operations. Where the Environment Agency has concerns that permit conditions are not complied with, it can use enforcement powers to seek to withdraw a site’s permit.

The withdrawal of the site’s permit means that A1 Supa Skips Ltd is no longer able to conduct any form of waste operations, including accepting or processing waste.  Any form of further waste deposit or processing on the site is now a criminal offence. As part of the withdrawal of the permit, the operator is also required to clear the site of all waste.

The Environment Agency is currently undertaking a criminal investigation regarding the site. As a result, the regulator was limited on the information that can be shared at this time.

Enforcement undertakings agreed for three companies in relation to packaging waste

The Environment Agency has accepted enforcement undertakings for three companies, meaning that a total of £87,000 will go to environmental charities.

The three companies concerned are a tech firm, drinks company and homes furnisher. The funding provided by the enforcement undertakings will go to environmental causes including species and habitats enhancement, community engagement and improving visitor access to natural environments.

Breaches

All three enforcement undertakings were made with respect to breaches of the Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007. These regulations require organisations handling more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year and a turnover of above £2 million to fund the recycling of packaging waste they place on the UK market.

By failing to register with a compliance scheme and to take reasonable steps to recover and recycle packaging waste, the businesses avoided paying a charge based on how much packaging they handled during the period they were non-compliant.

Enforcement undertakings

Enforcement undertakings allow companies that have breached applicable environmental legislation to put right the legal failing and to financially compensate any harm.

Details of the enforcement undertakings accepted are as follows:

• Softcat plc pledged £35,803.99 to the National Trust, after failing to comply with the law for more than a decade.
• Sazerac UK Limited pledged £45,088.49 to Surrey Wildlife Trust after failure to comply from 2017 to 2019.
• La-Z-Boy UK Limited pledged £5,736.89 to Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, due to non-compliance in 2020.

Company fined for illegal waste spreading and storage

A food waste recycling company has been fined for illegal spreading and storage of waste at three sites in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

In breach of its environmental permit, Whites Recycling Limited spread liquid waste at three locations:

• Fields near Ivy House Farm, Auckley between March and May 2018;
• Acomb Farm, Blaxton in November and December 2018; and
• East Ferry Road, Susworth, Lincolnshire in November and December 2019.

Liquid wastes containing nitrogen and phosphates were spread on land by the company at the wrong time of year or in excessive quantities, which posed a risk of pollution to groundwater. The company also pleaded guilty to illegally storing liquid waste in a storage tank on Acomb Farm between July 2017 and April 2018.

Whites Recycling Limited is involved in the disposal and recycling of waste sludge and liquid waste, the majority of which are generated by the food industry.  The company can lawfully spread such waste to farmland in circumstances where it can be demonstrated that land spreading will result in agricultural or ecological benefit.

Although an environmental permit allowed the company to spread food waste to land for agricultural benefit, it was a condition of its permit that before it could start to store or spread waste at a location it must notify the Environment Agency using a deployment form. Also, spreading was only allowed to proceed where agreed by the Environment Agency. Waste is only permitted to be spread to land when it benefits either the soil or the crop being grown in it and where it will not pose a risk of harm to the environment. If waste is spread to land without a deployment first having been agreed, or if waste is spread to land in circumstances which are not in accordance with the agreed deployment, then there is a risk of environmental harm.

Breaches

Whites Recycling Limited previously pleaded guilty to eight offences, including the breach of environmental permit conditions related to the spreading of waste to farmland in Auckley and Blaxton, Doncaster, and Susworth, Lincolnshire, contrary to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

Penalty

Whites Recycling Limited was fined £36,000 with a statutory surcharge of £170 and costs of £38,008.17.